Digimon: Mystery Shrouded in Fog
by M1YAK2
Summary: After the Digimon attack in Odaiba, the school was forced to transfer much of their students to other schools around Japan. The Digidestined moved into Inaba, where they will go to Yasogami Elementary, however, as soon as they move there, strange things start happening. People start being murdered, and with new allies at hand they must work together to solve the mystery in the fog.
1. Chapter 1: Welcome to Inaba!

**_AUTHOR'S NOTE:_**

I'm in a Persona craze right now, so I'm doing Persona crossovers, starting from Persona 4, because I got something planned for Persona 5, and the cast of Digimon Adventure isn't going to be the main characters in that. Besides, I can't start from the first persona. Mainly because, I really need to think of different universes for each of those 3(4? Persona 2: Eternal Punishment?) Persona games…Unless…Nah, I don't know…

Now, this takes place in 2011, due to the setting of Persona 4, being that it takes place in 2011. This also takes place a while after the Digimon attack in Odaiba (Just roll with me here, because the attack takes place in summer, but Persona 4 takes place at the beginning of the school year, which is in April, so I had to BS my way though some things, you know?). Most of Odaiba has been destroyed, and parts of Tokyo have been affected as well, including Nakano.

Also, some of the ages of the Digidestined have been affected, considering this is the start of the school year. For example, T.K. has been stated to be 7 years old during the summer, and Kari is stated to be 8, but they're both stated to be in 2nd grade. That would mean Kari's birthday would have to be somewhere in the middle of the school year, before vacation. This is all coming off of the wiki, by the way.

Avoiding confusion, the beginning of the Japanese School year is in April, unlike the United States in which the school year starts in September.

Anyways, hope you enjoy.

 _ **Authors Note May 1st, 2017:**_

GAH! I FORGOT TO CHANGE SOMETHING IN THIS! If you read it, forget about it. It's something that I considered back then.

 _CHAPTER 1:_  
Welcome to Inaba!

 _ **Persona series © ATLUS  
Digimon Adventure © Toei Animation**_

 _It's been a while after the attack…_

 _I thought we couldn't do it at first, but we managed to save the whole world. Being a hero is pretty awesome…if most people around the world knew that it was you who saved the world. Anyway, our home is in really bad shape, and after a while, they decided to move all of us to other towns and cities around Japan._

 _I really hope to take a break from all this. After saving the world, me and my team really need a break._

… _Oh how wrong I'll be…_

It was a foggy night, and it was very hard to see where one's going in the middle of the road. The fog was indeed dense. It was so dense, that you probably wouldn't see the headlights of a car coming, until it's like 10 feet away from you. A white limousine was driving in the middle of this foggy night, and where it was going, no one knows. Inside there, awaits a woman with silver hair, and a man with an extremely long nose. The entire interior of the limousine was padded with blue velvet, and there were couches a table, and a place for glassware and bottles of wine.

"Ah. It appears we have a guest." The man with the long nose said. Apparently, he was talking to somebody else in the limousine, other than him and the woman. "It seems this young boy has an intriguing destiny. In fact, you seem to have multiple destinies. My name is Igor. I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter…It is a room that only those who are bound by a contract may enter. It may be that such a fate awaits for you in the near future."

"Ngh…Wh-What's going on?" The person seems to be groggy from sleeping. The person seems clearly confused right now. "W-Why am I here? D-Did you people kidnap me or something?"

"Now now. Why don't you relax? We are on a bumpy ride."

"Yeah, to where?"

"Patience my guest. Now, shall we take a look into your future?"

The man puts his hand over the table, and like magic, and with a bright light, cards appeared under his hand. "Do you believe in fortune telling? Each reading is done with the same card. Yet the same result is different. *Chuckle* Life itself follows the same principles, doesn't it?"

 _Ah geez…Not only did I get kidnapped by people I don't know; I got kidnapped by a fortuneteller who wants to make a quick buck…_

The man named Igor spreads the cards all over the table, and flips over one. It has the picture of a 3-story tower on it, with the number 16 on the bottom of it in roman numerals (XVI). The top floor of the tower looks like it got blasted off by lightning.

"Hmm…The Tower in the upright position represents the immediate future. It seems a terrible catastrophe is imminent." Igor said. "The card indicating the future beyond that is…"

Igor then flipped over the card opposite of the card he flipped over a moment ago. It showed a crescent moon with the number 18 on it, in roman numerals as well (XVIII).

"…The moon in the upright position. This represents "hesitation" and "mystery"…very interesting indeed. It seems you will encounter a misfortune at your destination, and a great mystery will be imposed upon you. In the coming days, you will enter into a contract of some sort, after which you and your younger sister will return here."

 _Huh? My sister? Wait, don't tell me she's going to get dragged into this limo as well…Speaking of which, I wonder how she's doing right now. She must be worried sick that I'm gone. I don't even know how long I was out. Was I gone for days? Weeks? Months?_

"The coming year is a turning point in your destiny…If the mystery goes unsolved, your future may forever be lost. My duty is to provide assistance to our guests to ensure that does not happen." The man puts away the cards. "Ah, I neglected to introduce my assistant to you."

 _Yeah, I was wondering about that woman right next to him. She's been awfully quiet the whole time. Wonder what's up. For kidnappers, they don't really look that threatening. Just…weird._

"This is Margaret. She is a resident of this place, like myself."

"My name is Margaret." The woman said. "I am here to accompany you through your journey."

"We shall attend to the details another time." Igor said. "Until then, farewell…"

 _Huh? What? Wait, they're letting me go? In the middle of this fog? Hey wait!_

"Hey! Hey big brother, wake up!" A voice then fills the air, as the scene seems to fade away into the fog. It would seem that the fog is filling the limousine somehow, even though the windows are closed.

* * *

The person then wakes up to see his younger sister nudging him awake.

"Are you alright, Tai?" She said. "It looked like you were having a bad dream."

"Ugh, no, no it's fine Kari." He said, rubbing his forehead. "Just some wacky dream." He then sees that he wasn't in a limousine any longer, and there wasn't any fog. The two were on a train, set off towards a new destination.

"It's been a couple days after what we did…"

"Huh?"

"You know. The whole Digimon thing."

"Yeah, I know."

"Will mom and dad be there in Inaba?"

"Of course."

It has been a while after what happened in Odiaba, probably a week at least. Digital Monsters had invaded the real world, and started their conquest over the city of Odaiba. They were close to reaching their goal, when they were about to kill the eighth Digidestined child. However, the other Digidestined kids intervened, and together, they managed to stop the Digimon invaders. They then had to go into the Digital World for one last job, and ultimately, they effectively saved the world (And possibly the universe). But, their home was still a mess. It has been declared a disaster zone, and most people have moved out of there, until Odiaba is rebuilt again.

The children that went to the Elementary School there were transferred to other Elementary schools around the country. The one that Tai and Kari, as well as the other Digidestined kids, coincidentally, are going to is the one in the quiet town of Inaba, called Yasogami Elementary. Just like theirs, this Elementary school doesn't require a school uniform. This was certainly a change of pace from the regular city that they were all used to. The Kamiya's parents had to take another train headed to Inaba. They had to attend to some business back in Odaiba, but they promise to meet them in Inaba as soon as they can. The two do have cell phones on them, so if there was any emergency, they could simply call for help.

Tai looks out the window, in deep thought. This was the second time that they had to move in their lives. The first time was when they were young, and when there was a giant Digimon battle in Highton View Terrance. The authorities disregarded this as a terrorist bombing, which cause many families there to move. Coincidentally, that's where all the current 8 digidestined were gathered at the same time. In witnessing that battle, they all became Digidestined, destined to save the world, and the alternate dimension, the Digital World. These kids have risked their necks quite a few times in saving the worlds, so they were pretty toughened for any sort of battle.

In any case, the computerized voice on the train came to life.

[We will arrive at the Yasogami terminal in just a few minutes. Passengers headed for Inaba city, and Yasoinaba Station, please go to the other side of the platform.]

"Hey, that's us, right?" Kari said.

"Yup." Tai said. They then picked up their bags, and started going to the sliding doors, being careful not to fall over, or anything while the train was moving. They weren't at their destination just yet. They needed to transfer to another train to get to Yasoinaba station, which was on the other side of the train station they're headed to.

* * *

 _ **4/12/2011 Wednesday  
Afternoon  
Cloudy**_

The two digidestined kids walks off the transfer train, in Yasoinaba station, and headed for the road to see if their parents were there. They probably would have rented a vehicle to get to places for now on, considering there's hardly any sort of transportation methods in this quiet town, unlike the city of Odaiba. They took a look around the place, and sees there's barely anybody there. The only people with them are the few people that were on the train. Other than that though, there wasn't that much liveliness around this town.

"There's nothing here." Tai said. "It's like a ghost town. Did we take the wrong train?"

"No, this should be Inaba." Kari said.

"Sheesh, I'm not entirely used to this." Tai said. "…Wonder when mom and dad are coming to pick us up."

A car horn then honks, and a car drives up, although it had a bit of trouble parking near the kids. The parents were in the car, with their dad driving it. He sweatdrops, as he faces his children.

"Sorry it took so long to get here." He said.

"Oh, your father hasn't driven in such a long time." Their mother said. "I hope he won't get you two car sick."

Tai and Kari sweatdrops, as they entered the car, and put their bags under their seats. They have the rest of their suitcases, and personal belongings in the back of the car.

The car then starts taking off, headed towards their new, temporary home. Unlike their old home, this one is an actual house, rather than an apartment complex. It actually has a second floor on it, a garage and a background.

"Sheesh. It's so quiet around here." Tai spoke up, as they were riding.

"Is it really gonna be like this for the next year or so?" Kari said. "I miss some of my friends."

"Well, look on the bright side." Mr. Kamiya said. "This will be a nice change of pace. And besides, I bet anything's safer than Odaiba right now."

"But, when it fixes up, are we still gonna live there?"

"Well Kari, we'll see." Mrs. Kamiya said. "At the moment, it's just too hectic to live there right now. But, most of your friends are here, right?"

"Yeah, most of them." Tai said. He then thinks about their Digimon partners. After the battle, they returned to the Digital World. Right as they get to their new home, they're going to go onto the computer, and see if they can get any sort of contact from their partners. And besides, they also want to talk to the other Digidestined kids. In this town, it's possible to video chat with one another, but there's also the availability of social media. Of course, their parents would never allow something like that for their kids, so they can't have any sort of social media just yet.

* * *

Then, they had to make a pit stop at a near by gas station. Apparently, they were running low on gas.

"*Sigh* I think they cheated us…" Mr. Kamiya groaned. "This tanker was close to being empty."

"Why didn't they fill up the tank?" Kari asked.

"Well, no problem. We'll just fill 'er up."

"Are any of you kids hungry?" Mrs. Kamiya asked her children.

"Kinda." Kari answered.

"Hardly ate Lunch earlier." Tai said.

"Oh, well why didn't you say so?" Mrs. Kamiya said. "Here, we'll go to the station. We'll probably find a few snacks in there."

Before they were going to get out of the car, an attendant from the gas station walked up to them.

"Hi, welcome to Moel's." She said. "I'll fill up your tank for you."

"Oh, thank you." Mr. Kamiya said. He told the attendant what to put into the console, and then after that she puts the pump into the tanker on the side of the car, and started filling it up. The whole family then got out of the car. "Well, let's head on over to the station."

The parents started to leave, with the kids following, until the attendant stopped them to talk.

"So, are you traveling?" She asked them.

"Huh? Oh, we're moving." Tai said. "We're staying here for a year or so."

"Are you from Odaiba?"

"Oh, why yes." Kari said. "How'd you know?"

"I'd figured. I heard a handful of other people moving into this quiet town."

"Is it always like this?"

"Yeah. Most people here either spend time hanging out with friends, having part-time jobs, or watching TV, or doing other things."

"Well, we got friends to hang out with, so, it shouldn't be too much trouble." Tai said.

"Well, that's good for you." The attendant then extended her hand to the kids. "Well, hope you like living here."

"Thanks." Tai said, as he shook the attendant's hand, with Kari doing the same.

"Kids, we found something you might like!" Mrs. Kamiya's voice rose from the station. The two said goodbye to the attendant, and ran into the station.

They then left the station with a couple bags of chips, some water, and some granola bars. Before they went into the car, however, something flashed in Tai and Kari's mind. They felt lightheaded all of a sudden, and they grabbed their heads, groaning.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" Mrs. Kamiya asked.

"Ngh, I'm fine." Tai said. "Just, felt lightheaded."

"Yeah, me too." Kari said.

"Might be because we've been traveling all day." Mr. Kamiya said. "Don't worry. Hang in there, we're almost at our new home."

The two kids nodded, and they all got into the car. The car then drove off, towards the new home that they'll live in for the next year. The kids munched on some of the snacks, and drank some of the water. They're probably lightheaded because they haven't eaten and drank all that much today.

* * *

After a few minutes of driving, the Kamiyas have made it to their new house. It was a simple two-story house, with two doors at the front entrance. The first door was a sliding door, leading to the actual front door. They unlocked the door, and headed inside the house.

 _ **Evening**_

The house has a simple kitchen and dining area, where there was a table with chairs, and living room, in which it can be virtually the same as the dining area, only the seats are cushions, and the person would have to sit on their knees. There was also a TV in the area. Whoever had this house last, left a good-sized flatscreen TV in there. There are two bedrooms upstairs. Tai and Kari don't really mind sleeping together in the same room, considering they've been doing that for a while. There are boxes, filled with their clothes, and their school items. Towards the morning, they're going to have to start going to Yasogami Elementary School, which, thankfully, wasn't far from there. It's just a short walk from there, over to school. Business as usual.

Right now, Mrs. Kamiya got to work on dinner as soon as they settled in their new home. She then called them down once she was finished with it. At first, they debated whether or not to eat at the dining table, or at the more traditional table in the living room. Though they decided to try the table in the living room. After all, it was a nice change of pace from the setting they're used to in their old home.

After dinner…

"You know, I like this." Kari said, commenting how they ate tonight.

"Yeah, I guess it isn't too bad once you get used to it." Tai said. "I'd still prefer the table and chairs, but I guess this works too."

"We're glad to hear that." Mrs. Kamiya said.

Mr. Kamiya then got a ping on his phone. "Ah, that's my boss. I need to take this." He then stands up from the table, and walks away for a little bit.

"So, we need to go to Yasogami Elementary School in the morning, right?" Tai said.

"Yep. That's your new school for now on." Mrs. Kamiya said. "Don't worry. I know you'll make lots of new friends there, as well as see your old ones."

"Hope so." Kari said.

"Now, you should get some rest, you two. It's been a long day of traveling."

"We know." The two kids said. The two kids then stood, and went upstairs to their new room.

* * *

They still had a whole lot of unpacking to do, but they would do that tomorrow. Right now they were exhausted from all the traveling. This bedroom had a bunker bed, similar to the bed that was back at the apartments. There was also a couch in there, but boxes are covering it, making is impossible to be sat on at the moment, and a closet. They also have a small TV in there, but this one was an older TV, unlike the flatscreen downstairs.

 _(A whole year of being here…)_ Tai thought. _(Hope we'll get used to it…)_

"Hey Tai?" Kari spoke up, before they went to bed. "Do you think we'll like it here?"

"Hope so." Tai said. "I don't know about you, but when relaxation time calls, it's relaxation time I have to answer. Hopefully things won't be too hectic here, like in Odaiba."

"How do you think the others are doing?"

"Oh, shoot! I forgot to call them today. Uh, maybe we'll see them tomorrow at school."

"I hope everyone will be friendly to us over there…I don't want to have anybody being mean to me…"

"I think they will. And besides, I'll protect you if anybody tries to bully you over there."

"But, we're in different classes."

"I know, but I'll still protect you in anyway. You're my sister, after all."

"I know. Thanks Tai."

"Now, let's get some sleep. I feel like I'm going to collapse if I don't get some sleep soon…"

His sister nods, and says good night to him. He replies, and he lies down to go to sleep. Kari goes to the top bunker to sleep on her bed, already filled with her stuffed toys. Not one of them is her loving feline partner though, but that's beside the point. As soon as they lay down, and close their eyes, they drift off to sleep.

But only a few minutes passed, and already weird things start happening.

 _Seek the truth…_

"Nngh…Who's there?" Tai said, as he opened his eyes. This voice wasn't a familiar voice. It was a deep voice that he doesn't recognize at all. He got up to see that he's in his regular clothes, and that he was in an area with a thick layer of fog. This sure wasn't his bedroom anymore. "Wha- Where am I? Is anyone here?" He then quickly got up, and tries his best to see his way through the fog. "Hey! Is anyone here!? Kari! Mom! Dad!" He calls out to them, but then sees no one is answering him. Just when he was about to conclude that he's all alone, he hears a soft moaning towards the left of him. He then goes in that direction to see whom he could find, and in turn finds his sister, in her regular clothing, waking up.

"Kari!" Tai immediately went to his sister's side, and start helping her up. "Are you okay?"

"Nngh…Tai? I'm fine…I think."

" _Truth is elusive. If you desire it, find me."_

The same voice echoes in the foggy area that they're in.

"Well, sure doesn't look like we're in Inaba anymore." Tai said.

"Is this a dream?" Kari asked.

 _(Now I actually wish I was stuck in that limousine with that creepy guy with the long nose…)_ Tai thought in his head, thinking that being stuck in a limo with unknown people is better than this. Thinking back to reality, he thinks that this can't be a dream. Kari's here with him, and she seems to be just as confused as he is.

"Listen Kari, we gotta find a way out of here." Tai said.

"Where are we gonna go?" Kari asked.

"I guess we'll go in one direction, and hope we get back to Inaba."

"But what about that voice?"

"Don't worry about that."

"But he said to come find him."

"I'm more worried about getting out of here first than trying to find some creep. Besides, I don't think he can see us, so more likely we won't have to meet him. Let's just get going, okay?"

"Okay…"

They then got up, and proceeded to walk in a random direction, holding hands to make sure that neither of them walks away from each other. If they get separated, they don't know if it'll be possible for them to get back with each other.

They weren't too sure what's here. All that they've been seeing is nothingness. There's nothing here but fog and them. There are no streets, no grass, no nothing. All that lies before the two kids is a thick layer of fog, that makes it impossible for them to see forward much. They've been walking for a while, until they ran into a mysterious door. The door's design was squares outlining each other in a red and black pattern. At first they thought it was a sculpture of some kind, before Tai puts his hand on it. The door then opened in a weird fashion. The squares all turned, and one by one from the middle, they receded, until it made a wide opening for the two to go through. They sense something up ahead though; something strange…The two then felt compelled to go through the door, and they both then see a figure in the fog.

"H-Hey! Who's there?" Tai shouted.

" _So…You are the ones pursuing me…Despite the fog however, it seems that you can see me a little."_

"Well, this fog isn't all that thick."

" _Very interesting information…"_

"Okay? Uh, in any case, we weren't trying to follow you at all. We're looking for a way out of here."

" _There is no way out of the deepest parts of the fog…"_

The figure then spread their arms outward, and performs some sort of ability. More fog then spreads from them, and covers the entire area with an even thicker layer of fog. One that made it hard for the kids to see something at least a foot ahead of them.

"Wha! I can't see anything!" Kari yelled.

"Hey, get rid of this fog!" Tai yelled.

" _Your search for the "truth" will get even harder the more you try to fight it."_

"Truth? We aren't looking for anything like that! We're looking for a way to get the heck out of here!"

" _And to get out, is to search for the "truth"…But you will not catch me so easily…"_

"Please! Let us go! We didn't do anything wrong!" Kari shouted, wanting to get out of there.

" _Everyone sees what they want to…And the fog only deepens…"_

"Where are you!? Show yourself!" Tai yelled, as the fog starts to get even thicker, to the point that it starts obscuring his vision, so he and Kari won't even see; they'll be blind.

" _Will we meet again…? At a different time and a different place other than here…Hmhm…I'm looking forward to it…"_

Tai then starts yelling out towards the mysterious figure, but he's starting to lose consciousness. The fog somehow was making him feel sick inside, and he fell onto the ground. Before his hearing starts giving out, he hears another thud. It sounded like Kari lost consciousness as well. No way to see, can't get up, and losing consciousness. So far their first day at Inaba was going great so far…

* * *

 _ **4/13 Thursday  
Early Morning  
Raining**_

The second that Tai wakes up, he begins looking around the room, freaking out. He sees that his eyes are fine; he could see the messy room he slept in. He then hears his sister waking up, and Tai checks on her. Everything seems to be fine.

"Uh…Hey Kari. Morning." Tai awkwardly said.

"Mmm…Morning." Kari said, rubbing her eyes.

"Hey, uh, Kari? Did you have some weird dream last night?"

"Yeah. I was in this foggy place, and some guy was talking to us, and…er…did you have that dream Tai?"

"Yeah…Totally weird."

"It really felted real."

"I know."

"Tai! Kari! Breakfast!" Their mother called from downstairs.

"Better go get breakfast. Wouldn't want to be late on our first day."

His sister nodded, and jumps down from the bed.

They got dressed for the day, and went downstairs to eat breakfast. The usual Eggs, Bacon and Toast for the morning.

"Good morning." Their mother said to the kids.

"Where's dad?" Tai said.

"He already went to work. He's a busy man, you know?"

"Wow, he really has to go to work that early in the morning?" Kari said.

"Yeah. Anyway, how did you two sleep?"

The two kids looked at each other, awkwardly.

"Uh…Not so hot." Tai said.

"Oh, was there something wrong up there? Did you not sleep good with those beds?"

"No, it was just a nightmare we had."

"Oh, what was it about?"

"Trust me, I'd rather forget about it, than try explaining it…"

"Okay. Anyway, eat up you two. You need to be on your way to school."

"How are we supposed to go there again?" Kari asked.

"Don't worry. I have instructions for you two. Just remember this, and you'll be able to go to school just fine from then on." She hands them papers, regarding their transfer to the Elementary School.

"Thank you."

After the two kids ate breakfast, they then packed their backpacks for school.

"Oh, and bring an umbrella with you, it's raining outside." Their mother called out, just before they left the door.

"Okay!" Kari called back.

The house they got came with umbrellas for the family, so they didn't have to worry about going to some store to buy it.

* * *

 _ **Morning**_

After taking a few turns, they were at a school zone, known as Samegawa flood plain. There they see a bunch of students of mixed ages walking down the path. Though there were quite a few puddles of water on the ground, because this is a flood zone. There are drainage pipes on the walls that poured out water from the area above. It was to make sure that the grassy plains above didn't get flooded that much.

Kari however wasn't watching where she was going, and she ran into an older looking teen, and they both dropped their bags. This teen had silver hair, and a black school uniform, meaning he has to be somewhere in High School.

"O-Oh! I-I'm sorry!" Kari said, quickly bowing. "I didn't see you there and-"

"No, no, it's alright." The teen said. With that tone of voice, he seems to be nicer than he looks. He does seem to have a blank expression on his face though, which made them think he was more serious. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine."

"Sorry. We just got here." Tai said.

"I can see that." The teen said, as he and Kari were picking up their school supplies for the day.

"So, do you live here? How is it here?" Kari asked the teen.

"Well, I just moved here also; from a couple days ago."

"Huh?"

"My parents had to work abroad, so I'm moving here for a year with my uncle and cousin."

"Oh, what a coincidence." Tai said. "We're probably going to be here for a year also. You see, our home, well, er, let's just say something happened over there, and we were forced to move here until things cleared up over there."

"So I see. Hrm…Perhaps it's not any sort of coincidence that we're here."

"It's not?"

"I think not. Perhaps it is destiny."

Tai was a little bit set back by that, sweatdropping. Considering he had that crazy dream about that fortuneteller, he does not want to think about destinies right now. Though Kari seemed to be amused by that remark.

"Hahaha! You're funny." Kari said, laughing. "My name's Hikari Kamiya, but I'm more used to Kari, and this is my older brother Taichi, or Tai as we usually call him. What's your name?"

"My name's Yu Narukami."

"Nice to meet you."

"Well, we'd better get going to school." Yu Narukami said.

"Oh, uh, do we take this path or that path?" Kari asked, pointing to the left and right.

"You go that way." Yu said, pointing to the right. "My school's this way." He then pointed to the left for his High School.

"Okay, thank you. I hope we'll see each other again."

"Take care."

They then went off towards their school.

* * *

The two have arrived at the entrance of the elementary school. The pathway used to get here has a big gate that closes during and after school hours to prevent dangerous outsiders from getting in while school is in session, and it prevents thieves from sneaking into the school to steal school property. It also can triple down as a way to prevent kids from sneaking out while school is in session, though that rarely happens at Yasogami Elementary.

When Tai and Kari walked towards the front entrance of the school, they saw some familiar faces.

"Hey Tai!" One of them called out.

Obviously, these were the other Digidestined kids, who had arrived at the elementary school a while ago.

"Gee, this place is a lot different than what we're used to." T.K. said.

"Yeah, it's more quiet around here." Sora said.

"It's nothing like the city." Matt said.

"Sure isn't." Mimi said.

"Well, we're only here for about a year, until they fix up everything back at home." Joe said.

"Hopefully, nothing will go wrong here." Izzy said.

"Say T.K." Kari spoke up to T.K. "How's your mom and dad? I know they've got a divorce, and this is the first time that they're together, right?"

"Oh, well…" T.K. started.

"It's nothing to worry about, Kari." Matt said, interrupting. "Really, we're fine."

"Sheesh, I didn't realize that Digimon attack effected some of the other parts of Tokyo as well." Sora said.

"Well, we're here in Inaba." Tai said. "Might as well make the most of it. Besides, it feels a lot less crazy here. And anyway, we should get going, before we're late."

The group all nodded, and they went towards their respective classrooms. They're in different grades, so they don't see each other too often in school.

* * *

In the 5th grade class, there were kids talking, and walking around the classroom. School hadn't really started yet, so they were free to do what they please around the classroom…As long as it isn't against school rules, and that they were in the classroom before roll call.

"Hey, does Mr. Kyoshi teach here?" A girl asked her group of friends.

"Yeah, I think so." A boy said.

"Aw man. I know he is nice and all, but he can be a bit boring during his lectures, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I can agree to that…"

"Hey, did you hear?" Another girl in the group spoke up. "We're supposed to be getting new students in class."

"Whoa, really? Hey, what do you think they are? Boys, girls, boys and girls?"

"I don't know. I just heard this just now."

The teacher, named Mr. Kyoshi, walked into the classroom; with the new transfer 5th graders, which are Tai, Matt and Sora.

"Okay, settle down, class." He said, getting the students to take their seats. "Now, we've got new students moving in. They've had some…unfortunate problems back in their home, so they've moved into our small town."

"Oh, I don't think this is that small." Sora said.

"So, do you mind speaking your names to the class?"

"Uh, Taichi Kamiya, but people call me Tai."

"Yamato Ishida, but I like to be called Matt."

"Sora Takenouchi…And, that's actually the name I like to be called with."

Some of the class chuckled at the awkwardness.

"*Chuckle* So these are the kids who will be staying with us for the school year." Mr. Kyoshi said. "Now why don't you three take your seats. We're about to start today's lesson. Don't worry; I'll give you a list of necessary school supplies to bring. Just take your seats for now."

The three obeyed, and walked to empty desks in the middle of the room.

"Feels odd to be the new kids huh?" A boy from the row in front of them, whispered to the three. "Don't worry. I think you'll get used to it."

"I hope they will." A girl whispered to the boy. "I want them to feel welcome here in Inaba

"So far so good." Tai whispered to the others.

* * *

Meanwhile in the 2nd grade class.

The new students finished introducing themselves to the class, which included Kari and T.K. The teacher, named Mrs. Komaichi, then told the new kids to take their seats.

"Same class, huh?" T.K. said, to Kari.

"Yep. I think this will be a fun year." Kari said.

"Okay, kids." The teacher said. "So, for today, we are going to learn some fun things about our world."

Sure, the teacher said that at first, however, she starts to overwhelm the kids. She first talked about Japan, and some of the notable towns and cities on it, however, as she went on, she starts talking about historical landmarks that the kids have no idea what she was talking about. One kid spoke up, and asked if this was going to be on the test. A few days into the school year, and already one student asked if given information was going to be on a test. The teacher said no, and continued talking.

She was probably talking about the overview of the course for the social studies part of the school year, but still, it was kind of overwhelming hearing all of this near the beginning of the school year. Kari and T.K. were both fighting to stay awake 5 minutes in, and they managed to win this fight, all the way through the lecture.

There was nothing wrong with the teacher; she was nice, but she seems to talk too much, and unintentionally overwhelms students. It's a habit that she would like to break.

* * *

 _ **After School  
Foggy**_

The school day came, and gone just like that.

"Okay class." The teacher said. "Tomorrow we will start our lesson on the basics of Kanji writing. You're all dismissed."

The kids all stretched, and got up from their seats, either preparing to leave, or are talking to their friends. Then, the intercom of the classroom pinged.

[Attention all teachers. Please report to the Teacher Lounge for a meeting. Do not dismiss your students. All students are to remain in a classroom until further notice.]

"Oh, well, that's surprising. I wasn't expecting a meeting today." The teacher said, surprised about the announcement. Obviously, she hadn't heard of any meetings of today, though that may be because she might have overlooked her schedule. Regardless, she faced the class. "Okay class, I know you're itching to go home, but please stay put in the room for a little while longer." She then left the classroom, leaving the kids talking amongst themselves.

"What could have happened?" T.K. said to Kari.

"Beats me." She said.

"Aw, I don't want to stay here!" A boy complained. "I didn't do anything wrong!"

"You're in trouble, You're in trouble." A girl was teasing the boy in a singsong manner.

"I'm not!"

Suddenly, they heard police sirens from the outside, and everybody went to the windows to look. There was fog outside, so they couldn't see the police cars though. They do see some of the cherry red and dark blue lights outside, but thankfully, they weren't getting closer. That would mean something had happened inside of the Elementary school, but still.

"Wow, those sirens sound really close, don't they?" T.K. said.

"Yeah, they do." Kari said.

"Sheesh, it's been kinda foggy lately, hasn't it?" One boy said.

"Well, I heard fog happens because of the rain." Another boy explained.

"Really? I thought those are just clouds falling down to the ground."

"No. It's not like the _Rugrats_."

Kari and T.K. listened to another group of kids having a conversation.

"Hey, I heard that people have been looking for that lady lately." A rumor-loving girl said.

"Oh, you mean Mayumi Yamano, right?" Another boy said.

"Yeah, some guys said they saw her in the shopping place."

"Actually…" Another girl stepped into the conversation. "I heard that she's staying at Yukiko-san's inn."

"Really!? I should go ask her after school!"

"Speaking of which, when are we going to get out of here?"

"I know. I wish I snuck out before the announcer came on."

"By the way, did you do that thing last night?"

"What thing?"

"You know, the thing about rainy nights. You said you were gonna do it."

"Oh no, I couldn't. My mommy caught me, and put be back to bed."

"Aw, that sucks. I heard that a boy in another class was able to see it, and they were all, "My soulmate is Yamano, the announcer!"

"Ahahaha! That's so funny! There's no way she's his soulmate!"

The announcements pinged again, and the kids all listened to it.

[Attention all students. There has been an incident inside the school district. Police Officers have been dispatched around the School Zone. Please stay calm, and contact your parents or guardians as soon as possible, and quickly leave the school grounds. Do not bother the police officers. Head directly home. I repeat…]

The announcer repeats the situation again, and the students were all muttering about the incident with each other.

"Wha? What do you think happened?" T.K. said to Kari.

"Let's find Tai and Matt. This is starting to weird me out." Kari said.

The two kids nodded, and left the classroom, along with a few other kids. The first day at school, and already something bad had happened. Most of the kids in the school were in the main lobby by now, piling out the door. It wasn't as crowded as a normal city school, however it was still large. Kari and T.K. also had a bit of problems trying to get to their older brothers, before the hallways cleared up a bit.

* * *

The rest of the Digidestined met up with each other outside.

"Well, this is already going great." Joe said. "It hasn't been one day, and already there are policemen everywhere."

"What could have happened?" Sora said.

"I don't know, but we should get back to home soon." Mimi said. "I'm getting nervous just being out here."

"We shouldn't worry about that." Izzy said. "The policemen would protect us if anything goes wrong."

"Well, besides this, I think school went good for today, right?" Tai said.

"Well, there was that boring teacher that we had in class today." T.K. said.

"Well, I wouldn't say she was that boring…" Kari said. "But she did go on explaining something about all of Japan, and some parts of America."

"Yeah, our teacher is a bit of a handful too, but still, no one was mean to us today." Tai said.

"Yeah, the kids here seem really friendly."

"Hey, that reminds me, a group of boys walked up to me, and started sweet talking me." Mimi said.

"Sheesh, really?" Tai said, sweatdropping.

"Well yeah, but what they asked me was strange. They asked me if I knew something about the Midnight Channel."

"The Midnight Channel?" T.K. said.

"Yeah. There's this legend that goes on here in Inaba. Apparently, if you look into your TV, at midnight, during a rainy night, your TV will turn on, and you'll see your soulmate."

"Really?"

"Hmm…" Kari was thinking. She thinks she heard of something like that earlier, though it was kind of vague. "I think I heard something like that in class today. Someone said their soulmate was someone named Yamano."

"Yamano…" Izzy thought to himself. "…Oh, you mean Mayumi Yamano. I heard that she disappeared the other day before we came."

"How come?" Mimi said.

"Well, it's just as I said, she just disappeared. No one knows what happened to her."

"That's pretty weird." Sora said. "I wonder what happened to her."

"I heard that she was a TV announcer." Tai said.

"Maybe she decided to take some days off because she couldn't handle all that pressure of being on TV all the time." Matt said.

"Well, we should get going home. Our parents are probably freaking out that we're not home right now because of this incident."

They all nodded, and they started going to home. Sora, Matt and T.K. are accompanying Tai and Kari, since they seem to be living close to each other.

* * *

 _ **Cloudy**_

As they walk, under the gray skies, they noticed the streets being less crowded than their city(s). There aren't big apartment or work buildings, like in Odaiba, and you could actually see greens everywhere. To their right they saw an open space, being occupied by plants. It seems that somebody is growing a garden here. There are also less people in the streets.

"It's so peaceful here." Sora said.

"Not as hectic as our home." Matt said.

"Yeah, I would see cars everywhere at home." T.K. said.

"It'll take a while for us to get used to all this." Tai said.

"So, has school gone good today for everyone?" Sora said.

"Yeah." Kari said. "No one has bullied me."

"That's good to hear."

As they walked on talking for a while, Kari sees something up ahead. A crowd of people, a police car, and police tape, preventing people from going down a street to the left.

"Hey, what's that?" She spoke up. Everyone then takes notice.

"Hey, the police are there." Matt said.

The five then walks over there, and tries to look over the crowd, but they were too small.

"Is this what that incident was all about?" Tai said.

"Wish I could see it." T.K. said.

"Hey, it's you two again." A voice spoke up. Tai and Kari looked behind them, and saw the same silver haired teen from earlier, Yu Narukami, along with two girls unfamiliar to them. One has long hair, and a red outfit and a plaid skirt; and another is a brunette wearing a green sweatshirt with the same plaid skirt. Obviously, it looks like a required piece of clothing to wear to High School.

"Oh, you're Yu, right?" Kari said. The teen nods.

"Do you know these kids?" The brunette said.

"They're transfer students I met on the way to school."

"Yeah. I'm Hikari, but I like to be called Kari."

"I'm T.K., or Takeru, but I like to be called T.K."

The others introduced themselves.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Chie Satonaka."

"My name is Yukiko Amagi."

"So anyway, do you know what happened here? We were curious."

"Nope." Tai said, shaking his head. "We just got here, and we can't see a thing."

They then started to listen into some of the conversations the other people over there are having.

"Why can't they let us see what's going on?" Someone in the crowd said.

"I think I'm missing something, what happened here?" Another person said.

"Oh, you won't believe it. They're saying that they found a dead body hanging on an antenna."

That part made the group of students gasp in horror. Someone had been found dead, and they've been hung on an antenna.

"You were too late to see it however." The same person finished up. "The firemen just took the body down a while ago. I'm just wondering what they're doing over there now."

"Did-Did she just say…?" Chie started.

"D-Dead body!?" Kari exclaimed.

"Someone, got killed?" Matt said.

Everyone was at a loss of words. They could not believe that someone had died. An actual human being no less. The death of a Digimon was one thing for the kids, but the death of a human being is another, and this really shakes them up.

"So, was this what that announcement was all about?" Kari said.

"I guess." Tai said. "Glad it wasn't at our school though."

"Or ours." Yukiko said. "And what exactly do they mean, hanging from the antenna?"

"Uhh…You know, Yukiko, we should go to Junes some other time…" Chie said.

"Y-Yeah, that sounds good." Yukiko nodded.

"Hey, Narukami, we're going to take off. I just need something to get this off of my mind."

"Don't worry, I don't blame you." Yu said.

"So, tomorrow neighbor, let's do our best." Chie then faced the kids. "Oh, and besides this little incident, I hope you guys have a good time here in Inaba."

"Uh, thanks." Sora said. "We appreciate that."

"You should also go check out Junes sometime. It's the most popular department store around here."

"Uh, right." Tai said. "Well, we should get going."

"Right, see you guys later!"

The teens then left, while the kids went off towards their home.

* * *

 _ **Evening**_

As soon as the Kamiya kids walked through the door, their parents were making sure they were all right. It has been a while after school was released, so they were worried about them. They thought something could have happened to them, but they weren't in any trouble. The kids then told them that they saw the crime scene on the way home.

"You saw the scene?" Their mom said. "Did you see a body?"

"No. They took it down before we got over there." Tai said.

"Well, good. You shouldn't be exposed to a horrific sight like that."

"Mom, we're okay."

"Yeah, we are, honest." Kari said. She knows she's not fine. She has heard of someone who had died. A 7 year-old little girl like her most likely can't handle hearing about a death in a town she has just moved in to. She could hardly handle the deaths of the Digimon in her journey in the Digital World.

As they finished eating dinner, the news about the death today was on the channel they were watching on.

[Earlier today, Inaba Police has spotted a dead woman hanging from an antenna on a rooftop, near the Samegawa River in Inaba today. Police identified the body as Ms. Mayumi Yamano, a 27-year old TV announcer. Authorities are unsure why the body is in such a state. With the cause of death also unknown, police continue to investigate whether or not the death is an accident or a homicide. A thick fog, common to the area has slowed their progress, and plans to fully canvass the area are delayed until tomorrow. We will be right back with more details about this story after this break.]

The TV station then went to commercial, leaving behind the station's tune.

"The Samegawa River?" Tai said.

"Isn't that near school?" Kari said. "That's awfully close. It's awful that they found that woman hanging on an antenna."

"Yeah, and Mayumi Yamano…Izzy said something about her before we left. She disappeared the other day…"

"You think she…y'know, hung herself on there?" Kari asked, awkwardly.

"Something doesn't feel right. I don't think this could be an accident like they're saying it to be."

"So, you really think somebody…"

"I just don't know, Kari. Lots of strange things have been happening around here lately, huh?"

"I know…"

[We now return to our top story of tonight.] The news channel came back on with the news story from today. [The deceased announcer, Ms. Mayumi Yamano, has been in an affair with secretary Taro Namatame, husband of enka singer Misuzu Hiiragi. The police plans to investigate this relationship and question any personnel involved with them. In addition, we now bring you an exclusive interview with the local student who found Ms. Yamano's body today.]

The screen then switched to an interview with a female high school student who found Yamano's body hanging on the roof today. The student must be shy, or afraid because it looks like they requested their face to be covered up, and their voice to be modulated. An enthusiastic reporter then started asking questions to the girl.

[What went through your mind when you saw it? Could you tell she was dead? Did you see her face?]

[Uh…Umm…]

[Don't you think it's scary that someone has been killed on a foggy day?]

[Huh…? She was killed?]

Tai and Kari both raised an eyebrow.

[Oh, err…So did you see anyone suspicious around here?]

[No, not really.]

[We heard that you found it when you left school early. Did you have some personal business to take care of?]

[Huh? That's…]

"Yeah, this is a bunch of bologna." Tai groaned. From the looks of the girl's answers, it looks like she doesn't really know much about the death of Yamano, or even if she has actually seen the body at all. Even more so, the announcer is just firing question after question to her, without giving her much time to answer. The announcer to the channel came back on.

[-A tragedy that occurred near the local shopping district.] The announcer said, seemingly finishing the sentence for her.

The announcer goes on to report that storeowners are concerned about losing customers in the district…because of the dead body…and that they're more concerned about that, than the elephant in the room…

The announcer then starts talking to a commentator who was in the station today. He goes to say this could be a warning or a sign from the culprit. But strange enough, no one has taken credit for the crime yet. The commentator then starts ridiculing the police force for not figuring out a cause of death, and for not figuring out a suspect yet. It is true however. A case like this must have at least some hypothesis about the cause of death, and the suspects at hand. Namatame very well could be the guilty party here, however police aren't calling him out just yet. The commentator then goes to complain about the police force; that they are paying taxes for a police force who can't figure out more about the case at hand, or even decide if this was an accident or a homicide. The news announcer then says they're going on break, quickly after that.

The screen then switches to a commercial for the Junes Department Store.

[At Junes, every day is Customer Appreciation Day. Come see for yourself, and get in touch with our products.]

This was the department store the teens were talking about. The little well known tune then played.

[Every day's great at your Junes!]

Kari smiled upon hearing that. She seems to find that catchy.

"Hey, I kinda like that tune." She said. "'Every day's great at your Junes!' Hahaha! I like it!"

"It's just a department store." Tai said. "We got tons of those back in Odaiba."

"But this one's got a nifty tune! I wanna keep singing that every time it comes on TV."

"Hey, speaking of TV, you remember what the others said?" Tai whispered to Kari.

"About what?"

"You know. The Midnight Channel."

"Oh yeah. I want to do that tonight. I want to see who'll be my soulmate."

"Wonder if it'll work for the both of us…"

* * *

 _ **Late Night**_

Later that night, after the two were put to bed, they were staying up to see about the Midnight Channel. Mimi said that it only appears at midnight, during rainy nights. Well, lucky for them, it's raining outside, showing no signs of stopping, so this is a perfect time to witness the midnight channel. The clock was ticking in the bedroom, as the two kids were patiently waiting for midnight to come, all the while fighting to stay away, considering this is way past their bedtime.

Just to kill time, Tai looks around the room. They've unpacked, so the room was less cluttery now. They've got a nightstand next to the bunkbeds, they are able to sit on their couch, they can actually go to their windows, and see the outdoors from there; they have a desk to work on school work (and it's wide enough for the both of them to work on it at the same time), and all their clothing has been hung on the hangars in the closet.

The clock was at 11:59 PM, and the second's hand was ticking past the 7 mark. Kari was taking a nap on Tai's shoulder, until he shook her awake.

"Hey, it's almost midnight." He said to her. She opened her eyes, yawned, and stood up. "Let's see if Mimi's story is true…"

They both walked up to the TV on the TV stand, and waited for midnight to come. Once it did however, nothing was happening. They waited for a few seconds, and nothing happened. Waited again, and still nothing was happening. They were just staring at a blank screen. Tai then turned the TV on (And quickly turned the volume down, to not alert their parents), and all they saw was static. Nothing worthwhile was on.

"Heh. I knew this was a waste of time." Tai mumbled, turning off the TV. "Let's just go back to bed." He and Kari then went over to the bunk beds, and were about to climb into bed, until they heard the TV go on, on its own. "Huh?" They both walked over to the TV, curious. The picture was stuttering, and it was hard to see what was on there, but they think they saw somebody on there, in front of vending machines. From the looks, it looked like the same student from the news channel that night. From the looks, it also looked like something was happening to her.

"Doesn't she look like, that high school student from that news report?" Kari spoke up.

"She's supposed to be our soulmate?" Tai wondered.

A few seconds later, the picture goes blank, and the broadcast seemed to stop. Just as it stopped, a voice rang in their heads, making them grab it in pain.

" _I am thou…Thou art I…"_

 _(Wh…What is this…)_ Tai groaned, as he was groaning in pain, along with Kari.

" _Thou art the one who opens the door."_

Lightning crackled outside, and they no longer felt the presence of the mysterious voice. The clock was just ticking past the 12, and made it 12:02 AM.

"Nng…Kari…?" Tai said, looking at his sister. She was grabbing her head in pain as well. _(Did she have the same voice in her head?)_

Tai then looked at the TV. After the supposed Midnight Channel broadcasted, they felt pain, and heard voices in their head. Tai suspects that something from the TV could have probably done something like this. Curiously, Tai walks up to the TV. The first thought that comes to mind was to put his hand on the TV. He does, but when that happens, it created some sort of ripple from the place where he poked the screen. That surprised him.

"…Tai?" Kari said, looking at him, waiting for a response. She didn't see the ripple part, but she was wondering what Tai was doing to the TV. Tai then thinks to put his whole hand on the screen, wondering what would happen. He does, and his whole hand flowed through it, with ease, as if the screen was made by water. They both were taken back by this new discovery. "Whoa…How are you doing that?"

Before Tai got the chance to answer, he felt something grab onto his hand. Something then was pulling him into the TV. He yelps in pain, and tries to pull back, but the force was too strong. He was then jerked forward, and his whole head went into the TV, as he was being sucked into the TV. Kari shrieks, and then goes to pull her brother out of the TV, trying to save him. Tai's free left arm gripped onto the closet next to the TV, and he was pushing with all his might to get out of the TV. With the two's might, they were able to get Tai out of the TV, but they both stumbled back, and Kari hits her head on the coffee table as they fell.

Obviously, the parents heard that, and they rushed into the room to find the two on the ground, with Kari holding her head in pain, and kicking her legs, while crying from the impact.

"Oh! What happened!?" Mrs. Kamiya exclaimed, rushing to them.

"I…*Sniff* Tai, was *Hic* being pulled into the TV, so I tried to pull him, but I hit my head on the table…" Kari tried explaining under her tears. The parents were confused by that, but were more worried about Kari's head.

"Oh, don't worry sweetie." Mrs. Kamiya said, picking up her daughter, and rubbing her head. "I'll go in the kitchen, and get you an ice pack." They both then left the room, leaving Tai and the dad.

"Uh, I think Kari had another nightmare." Tai said, lying about the situation. "She woke up, and rushed to the TV, but must have tripped and hit her head on the table. I only woke up after hearing her call out my name."

"You two seem to be getting a lot of nightmares lately. Are you two okay?" Mr. Kamiya said.

"No, it's alright. I think it must have been because of Yamano's death a while ago."

"That is true. You know, you two shouldn't read more into that story. Just relax. Everything will be fine."

"I know…Thanks dad…"

After Kari has calmed down, she went back to bed, with the ice bad on her head, while Tai was still awake, still processing what had happened. He did lie about the situation minutes ago. He didn't want their parents to start worrying about killer TVs that could potentially eat your children. Still, the thought of him getting sucked into the TV creaped him out. He didn't even know what was on the other side. Of course, the TV was too small for him to even fit his whole body through, so he wouldn't have had been sucked into the TV wholly, but still. Tai then closed his eyes, and went to sleep. He decides to talk it over with the others tomorrow.

Lots of strange things have been happening ever since they moved into Inaba the day before. First was the death, and now being sucked into the TV? And that was caused by Tai's curiosity with the Midnight Channel. He wonders if the Midnight Channel has something to do with everything that had happened in Inaba as a whole, and if this was a sign that something bit was about to come in the future…

 _ **TO BE CONTINUED**_


	2. Chapter 2: The Shadow World

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  
There will be some slight changes here and there that will differ from the actual Persona 4 game, and anime.

 _CHAPTER 2:_  
The Shadow World

 _ **Persona series © ATLUS  
Digimon Adventure © Toei Animation**_

 _ **4/14 Friday  
Early Morning**_

Tai and Kari were once again walking under rain, with umbrellas over them. They were headed towards school, albeit a bit shaky from last night. Tai kept making sure he had his arm in tact. The both of them are also pretty paranoid of going anywhere near TVs, considering that Tai was almost pulled into one. What was doing that anyway? All these questions start going through their minds, as they walk towards school.

They got to the entrance of the school, to see their friends over there. They all greeted each other, and Sora noticed Tai and Kari were a bit drowsy.

"What happened to you guys?" She asked. "It looked like you didn't sleep last night at all."

"Ugh, you won't believe what happened last night." Tai groaned.

"Did you watch the Midnight Channel?" T.K. said. Tai nodded.

"For some reason, I saw this girl on the screen." Sora said. "Is, she supposed to be my soulmate?"

"She looked like she was in some sort of pain on there." Izzy said.

"Wait, Izzy, did you see her too?"

"Well, she was wearing a high school uniform, and her hair was long…"

"Hey, wait, wasn't she that witness from the news channel from last night?" Tai spoke up.

"You saw the same girl too Tai?" Sora said.

"I think we all saw her." Matt said.

"Yeah, me too." Joe said.

"And me too." Mimi said.

"That's pretty strange." Izzy said. "How can we all have the same soulmate?"

"Well, we should talk about this later." Tai said. "We're gonna be late for class."

They all nodded, and headed into the school.

* * *

 _ **Morning**_

This day almost felt the same as yesterday. They were actually working on some worksheets in class; however, the 5th grade class was still bored out of their minds in class. It's school, what do you expect? Elementary School kids usually can't handle boring teachers. The teacher had called on Tai a few times to answer questions, and 7 times out of 10 he'd get them right. Tai can be a hot head sometimes, but he is the leader of the Digidestined…Still doesn't disregard the fact that he's a hot head.

* * *

 _ **After School**_

Some kids in the class were talking about the Midnight Channel broadcast last night. From the looks, they've all seen the same girl from last night. They were talking about how they seen the same girl, and were wondering about what it meant. Tai was talking to Sora and Matt of what happened last night.

"So, you saw the same girl too." Sora said.

"Yeah, but, what did you say? Something about getting sucked into the TV?" Matt said, chuckling a bit.

"Hey, it was true!" Tai exclaimed. "Kari grabbed onto me, but she banged her head doing it. Ask her, she knows."

"Right, well, maybe you two had a nasty nightmare last night." Sora said. "I mean, getting sucked into a TV? That seems a little, surreal."

"Hey, don't forget, we went into the Digital World." Tai defended. "We're used to stuff like this."

"But that's a whole different story." Matt said.

"Okay, let's not talk about the digital world." Sora said. "We don't want to cause something here."

"Look, the point is, my hand got pulled into the TV, but the TV was too small for me to get my whole body through." Tai said.

"Uh-huh…" Sora said. She then changed the subject. "Oh, speaking of which! I think there's a big sale on TVs at Junes right now. I heard that they got some of those big flatscreen TVs. I wanted to go see it right now."

"Well, we'd better go before their happy hour starts." Matt said. "Hey, who knows? Maybe we can push Tai into one of their big flatscreens." Matt said, chuckling.

"Not funny, dude…" Tai groaned.

* * *

Later, the three were standing in front of the Junes department store, with Kari accompanying them. T.K. said he went home. He must have caught a cold from being in this rain. This place sure was bigger than the corner markets in Odaiba. They got groceries, electronics, toys, and all sorts of things. It's sort of like your average _Target_ store.

"Sheesh, this look bigger than the corner markets in our city." Tai said.

"Where do you suppose the electronic department is?" Sora said.

"Hey, it's you guys again." A voice said behind them. They turned around, and once again, they encountered the same teen from yesterday, Yu Narukami. Along side him was Chie, and another teenager.

"Wow, we seem to be meeting each other a lot lately, huh?" Kari said. Yu nods.

"You know these guys?" The teenager asked Yu.

"Yeah, they're transfer students from a city, just like Narukami." Chie said. The four Digidestined introduced themselves to the teen.

"Yeah, I know how it feels to be the new kid around here." The teen said. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it here. Oh, sorry. I didn't introduce myself. I'm Yosuke Hanamura. I'm a second year in High School."

"Nice to meet you." Kari said.

"So, we were here because I wanted to see that big sale here today." Sora said. "Do you know where it is?"

"Of course." Yosuke said. "My dad is the manager of Junes."

"Really? Wow, that's neat." Kari said.

"Yeah. Anyways, let me show you to the electronics section."

Yosuke leads them all to the big flatscreens in the electronics department of the store. As mentioned, these TVs were big. They were bigger than the teenagers. You could fit a whole body in one of them if needed…A whole body…

"Wow, this is huge!" Chie exclaimed. "…And holy crap is it expensive! Who buys something like this?"

"I dunno…Rich folks?" Yosuke said. "Honestly, not many people shop for TVs here. That's why we don't have that many clerks around here."

Chie and Yosuke then looked at each other, and they walked to the TV screen. They both placed their hands on the TV screen, and…nothing. Nothing was happening. They weren't getting sucked in or anything, which baffled Tai, and Yu from the looks.

"Nope, can't get in." Chie said. "Haha, that proves it. It was all a dream."

"Besides, even if you could get in, you'd end up on the other side." Yosuke said. "This isn't that wide."

"Hey, wait, you guys had the same TV problem?" Sora said.

"Huh? Wait, don't tell me you got your hand stuck in a TV."

"No, Tai did. It's probably a dream though." Sora then walked up to the same TV, and put her hand on it, but still, she couldn't get her hand inside the TV. "Nope. No luck."

"Well, the most important thing is, we can't get our hands in the TV." Yosuke said. "Bah! What am I saying? So, Chie, is there any other TV in the market you're interested in?" Yosuke said, changing the subject, trying to forget what they were trying to find out earlier.

"Oh, right." Chie said. "Well, my family said they'd buy it, if it was cheep."

"Well, *Ahem* might I interest you to this TV, over there?" Yosuke said, changing his voice to sound like a helping employee, as he and the others went off to the other TVs down the wall, leaving Tai, Kari and Yu.

"Did you two get you hand sucked into the TV last night?" Yu asked them.

"Yeah." Tai said. "Why? Did you?" Yu nods. "Weird."

"Are you crazy!?" Chie exclaimed from another TV down the wall of TVs. "That's not cheep!"

"I guess I should of asked what you meant by cheep…" Yosuke said, sweatdropping.

As they were talking, Kari walks up to the big TV from earlier, and puts her hand on it. So far, nothing. She feels like she might have dreamt it last night, until, a ripple effect came out of the screen, and her hand flowed through the screen, like water, surprising Tai.

"Whoa! It worked!" Tai exclaimed.

"Well, then might I interest you to-" Yoskue was talking to the others, before seeing the young girl's arm is inside the TV screen.

"Huh?" Chie said. "What's wrong?"

"Dude. Little girl. Arm inside the screen!" Yosuke yelled, pointing to Kari, panicking. The others turned towards Yu, Tai and Kari, and sure enough, they were shocked as well.

"What the…!?" Matt started.

"H-Her, arm, is inside the TV screen!" Chie yelled. The others ran up to them. "Uh, is this a new function?"

"Hell no!" Yosuke exclaimed.

"Whoa…" Sora said, observing it up close. "So you guys weren't kidding."

"Is this, some sort of secret magic trick that only you guys know!?" Chie exclaimed, wanting to know more.

All of them were staring at the three, astonished. They thought this was a magic trick at first, though. Kari then was curious to what was inside. She didn't ask Tai about it much, because she hit her head last night, and didn't feel like asking Tai about it. She became curious, and then stuck half of her body through the screen, wanting to see the inside of it.

"Hey! Don't do that!" Yosuke exclaimed. "You're breaking it!"

"Oh my god!" Chie exclaimed.

"Do you see anything in there?" Yu asked, seemingly not surprised. Well, he did claim to be a victim of the man eating TVs, so he must know what's going on right now…right?

"It's just wide open empty space." Kari said.

"Wh-What do you mean wide open?" Yosuke said.

"What do you mean empty space!?" Chie exclaimed.

"So, there's something inside the TV, besides circuit boards and wires?" Sora said.

"This is really weird." Matt said.

"Oh man! This is too much for my bladder to take!" Yosuke exclaimed, holding his groin.

"What the- Are you serious!?" Chie exclaimed, disgusted.

"I've been holding it all day! I haven't had the chance to go! Ngh, can't hold it anymore!"

Yosuke then rushes out of there to go to the bathroom.

"How is all of this happening anyway?" Matt said.

"And how come it's only you guys that can do this?" Sora said.

"Look, we don't know." Tai said. "This only just happened last night when we were watching the Midnight Channel. Chances are, the Midnight Channel might have something to do with all this…" Yosuke then comes rushing back, quickly, looking nervous, as if he's seen a ghost.

"Shit! Customers!" Yosuke cursed, coming back. "They're coming!"

"Wha!? But we got a little girl half stuck in the TV here!" Chie exclaimed. "What are we gonna do!?"

Yosuke and Chie both then rushes around there, frantically trying to find out what to do about this.

"Uh, why don't I crawl out of-" Kari started, starting to come out of the screen, before Yosuke and Chie trips, and falls on them all. In the process, this also makes them crash into the TV, and everyone fell into the screen, screaming.

* * *

As they were falling, there were squares of white and black coming towards them, making it look like they were transporting. Everyone doesn't know what's going on here. The Digidestined has some experience with portal traveling, but this wasn't like transporting to the Digital World. This was something new to them. The feeling was strange too. It was as if the air was growing thicker.

Before they knew it, all of them fell right onto solid ground, and they tumbled to their sides when they landed. Miraculously, they didn't break anything from the looks of it.

"Oww…I think I broke my butt…" Kari groaned.

"Thanks for that, guys…" Tai groaned at Yosuke and Chie.

"Man, where the heck are we?" Sora said, looking around them. A yellow glow is lighting up the place. The ground has some sort of pattern on it that they can't distinguish. What's more notable is the thick fog that's filling the place.

"Is everyone okay?" Yu said, making sure everyone's okay.

"Well, I guess we are, even though we fell like a 100 feet." Tai said.

"To tell you the truth, we kinda did something like that, right?" Matt said.

"What is this place?" Chie said, looking around them. "Some place inside Junes?"

"Hell no it isn't." Yosuke said. "But man. What is this? Some sort of studio?" Upon closer inspection, through the fog, they see some lighting equipment hovering above them, and some awning. It looks like what Yosuke is describing it; it was a studio.

"I think it is studio…" Kari said. "I'd see better if it wasn't for this fog."

"Yeah, what's with this fog anyway?" Matt said.

"Is there any place like this in Inaba?" Kari asked Chie.

"No, I don't think so. I don't remember any place that allows you to fall through TVs, and land in some studio filled with fog. So, what are we gonna do?"

"Should we explore?" Tai said.

"No." Chie said. "I just want to go home righ-" Chie then turned around to try and go back home, but she didn't see any sort of entrance, or exit. Nothing was there that resembled any sort of entrance or exit. "Wait…Where did we come from? Ah, there's no exit!"

"O-Okay guys." Yosuke said. "Stay calm."

"I am calm." Yu said, calmly.

"I SAID STAY CALM!" Yosuke yelled at Yu. "Alright? Okay, so, we need to explore more of this place. There has to be an exit. If there isn't, well, we're stuck, so let's cross our fingers and look around."

Everyone reluctantly nods. They don't know about this place, yet, they're exploring it. Regardless, they went over one of the three bridges in the area, and went on.

* * *

As they walk, they see that they're entering a new area now. There's a wooden railing to their left, and a wall to their right. It looks like they're walking on some sort of balcony. Up ahead was some sort of door, with a weird, trippy pattern moving in it of red and black. All the while though, they're walking in fog that's covering things over a 100-yard radius from the looks of it.

"What is this place?" Chie said. "It feels different from where we were before…"

"It just keeps going on and on." Yosuke said.

"How much farther?" Kari moaned. "My feet hurt."

"Oh, crap. I forgot we got kids with us."

"What? We're we invisible to you guys?"

"No, nothing like that, Tai." Yosuke then turned to Yu."We gotta focus on their safety. They're our responsibility, y'know?"

"Yeah. We're their guardians at the moment." Yu said. "Let's keep moving on for the time."

"Are you sure we aren't wandering farther and farther away?" Chie said.

"We just got to trust our instincts."

They then moved on to investigate more of the place.

* * *

They moved on into some room. They were able to see the room clearly through the fog, from one wall to the next.

"Hey, the fog seems lighter here." Yosuke said. Tai then gets out his phone, and checks to see if he can call somebody. He wasn't getting any bars.

"Agh. No service." He groaned. He then puts it away. Chie then catches up with them, as they were walking too fast into here.

"Will you guys slow down?" Chie groaned, as she walks up to them. They turned to face her, but paid attention to the walls behind her. "I seriously thought I was going to lose you guys. Do you have any ide…Hey, what are you looking at?"

"Uh…behind you…" Sora said, awkwardly. Chie turned around, and sees the walls.

"Wha!? What is this?"

The wall behind her is covered in posters, with the face cut out, and was covered in red and yellow splatters. They don't even know if it's paint, or worse, blood. From the looks of the place, it seems to be someone's bedroom. The bed behind them and the closet proves this more.

"Whoa…Somebody must have hated this person." Tai said, looking at the place.

"Dude…" Yosuke said, looking at an arrangement of a chair and rope. "This chair…and rope…This combination is never good…"

"It's tied in a noose with a scarf on it." Yu described the rope. That would mean somebody could be planning an attempted suicide. When Yu described the noose having a scarf on it, Kari touched her own scarf and shuttered. They then start looking around the place more.

"Whose room is this?" Kari asked, as they looked around.

"I dunno, but I get the feeling we shouldn't be in here right now…"

"Y-You mean, like something could pop up any minute…?" Kari said, shaking.

Just as she asked that, Yosuke screamed, startling them all. They thought they were being attacked.

"WHAT!? WHAT!?" Chie yelled, on the edge.

"Ngh! I can't hold it anymore!" Yosuke yelled, jumping up and down, while holding his groin. He then went to the corner of the room.

"Sheesh, that was it!?" Chie exclaimed.

"Wait, you can't go in here!" Kari exclaimed. "It's someone's room! Tai, Yu, can't you stop him?"

"Huh? Why would I want to do that?" Yu said.

"Huh?" Kari said, having beady eyes.

"Turn around!" Yosuke yelled. "I can't go while you guys are…Gah, I can't do this. Don't blame me if I wet myself." He then toughens up, and turns around.

"Let's just get out of here!" Chie yelled. "I'm starting to feel sick inside."

"Blech…" Kari groaned. "I'm starting to feel sick inside too…"

Now that they mention it, everyone starts feeling like they're getting sick too. They decide to go back to where they first landed. As they were walking out though, Yosuke stayed behind for a bit to look at the posters. He feels like he's seen them somewhere. Kari then walks up to him.

"Yosuke? Is something wrong?" Kari asked him.

"Just this odd feeling that I've seen this somewhere…Ah, I'll think about it later. Right now, we should get out of here."

Before they were able to go back through the door, the others ran towards them.

"Something's coming!" Yu exclaimed.

"What!?" Kari exclaimed.

"Quick, we need to hide!" Chie exclaimed. They then hear the sounds of footsteps getting closer. "Ah! Too late!"

Everybody looked behind them, and instead of a monstrous monster that they were expecting, they saw what appears to be, a child sized bear of some sorts. It was a blue colored bear, with a red outfit on, with red buttons in the middle. He was staring at them, as if he was curious about them. Unfortunately for him, the Digidestined kids knew better than to trust something that's cuddly and fluffy from their experience in the Digital World, so…

"Pile onto him now!" Tai yelled.

The 4 Digidestined kids all sprinted forward, and piled right into the creature, who was screaming from the looks. The teens were giving them awkward looks, and walked up to them.

"Whoa, what is this thing?" Chie said.

"It's not any Digimon I've ever seen." Tai said, sitting up. The teens were confused when he said that.

"Digimon?" Yu asked.

"Ack! Get off of me!" The creature yelled. "I'm no Digimon or whatever!"

"*Gasp* It talks!" Chie exclaimed.

"Of course I can talk! I'm a bear!" The four kids that are on top of the creature looked at each other awkwardly. Obviously this bear creature didn't seem like a threat to them, so they got off of him, and he stood up. Now that they take a look at him, he really doesn't seem like a threat. In fact, he seems like a stuffed toy Kari would hug in her sleep. This bear was a little bigger than Kari. However, there was a zipper in the middle of the bear, so that would suggest that this was a costume, and there's a person inside of the suit.

"Who are you?" Yosuke said.

"That's what I want to know. Who are you guys?" The bear said.

"Okay, okay." Kari said, trying to calm everyone down. "Can we start from the-"

"You want a fight, bear!?" Chie exclaimed.

"Hey, don't yell at me like that!" The bear exclaimed, cowering in fear.

"We should calm down." Yu said. "Alright, let's start at the beginning. Who are you exactly?"

"I'm someone who lives here in this world."

"You live here?" Sora said.

"In this fog?" Matt said.

"Yeah." The bear said.

"What is this place called exactly?"

"I don't know myself. It doesn't have a name."

"You live in some place where it doesn't have a name?" Tai asked.

"Yeah. Now if I were you, I'd get out of here. Someone's been throwing people in here. It gets to become a headache."

"Wait, throwing people in? What are you talking about?"

"I don't know who's doing it! I just want whoever's doing it to stop doing things like that!" The bear exclaimed.

"Hey! What gives you the right to yell at us like that!?" Chie exclaimed, scaring the bear again.

"Okay, okay, let's calm down a bit." Kari said. She then faced the bear. "So, are you saying there's other people trapped in here like us?"

"Well there used to be people here, but I wouldn't hear them anymore a while after the fog lifts."

"The fog lifts?"

"Yeah, what's up with this anyway?" Tai said.

"It's something that stick around this world." The bear said.

"Something that…" Tai then shakes his head. "Ahh, what am I doing? Look, we need to find a way out of here! Can you lead us to the exit?"

"Rgh, that's what I was gonna do earlier! I'll let you out!"

"Where is the exit by the way?" Kari asked.

The bear then looked like he was about to do something, however, stopped, and he had a scared face on.

"Ahh! They're coming!" He exclaimed.

"Huh? What's coming?" Kari asked, confused.

"Th-The shadows! They're coming!"

"What shadows?"

"Is he afraid of his own shadow?" Matt asked, sweatdropping.

"Gah! There's no time! You guys need to run!"

"Run from what? What are you talking about?" Tai said.

"Look, take these glasses, and run!" The bear then got out a few pairs of glasses, and handed them to the group. There wasn't enough to hand out however.

"Why do we need these?" Tai asked.

"And why didn't you give us enough of them?" Sora said.

"Just put them on!" The bear yelled.

Everyone looked at each other awkwardly. Tai took a pair, and so did Yu. They put them on, and they were amazed by what they were seeing.

"Whoa!" Tai exclaimed.

"What? What is it?" Kari asked.

"The fog. It's gone." Through his and Yu's vision, the fog was gone. They were able to see down the corridor; they could see clearly now. The difference is night and day basically.

"Really?" Yosuke asked.

"Yeah. I can't see the fog anymore." Yu said.

"Hey, lemme see." Kari asked, grabbing the last pair. She puts it on, and was amazed herself. "Whoaaa! This is cool!"

"Yeah, yeah, that's cool for you humans. Now get going!" The bear yelled. He then sniffed again, and once again got a scared face. "Too late. They're here!"

Only Yu, Tai and Kari can see what he was talking about through this thick fog. They start looking around them, but found nothing. They thought that the bear was actually talking about their actual shadows. They did some looking around in the corridors, and still, nothing.

"Nothing's here." Yu said.

"Are you sure you weren't imagining it?" Tai said.

"Well, they thought we were imagining the whole TV thing." Kari said.

"Well, we believed you when we saw it." Yosuke said. "And we won't believe in these shadows, until we see it."

Just as he said that, the window in the room behind them shattered. They could hear it, even when the door was closed.

"W…What was that?" Sora said, scared a little bit.

Tai and Yu carefully was creeping up to the door. The wood beneath them was creaking as they crept. They didn't know what was behind the door, but they were on guard. Tai then thinks that the same pile on tactic won't work this time. Regardless, they were ready for anything behind the door, as they opened it.

However, it turns out they were not ready. They weren't ready at all. A giant creature busts through the door, and revealed itself to everyone, scaring them all. It was basically a giant hovering mouth, with its tongue stuck out all the time

"AHH! What is that!?" Kari yelled.

"Everyone! Run!" Yu yelled. They obeyed, and everybody ran as fast as they could, through the corridors.

* * *

They ran to the outside, where Yu, Tai and Kari were able to see more clearly out here. It basically looks like Inaba, but the sky has this weird black and red stripe pattern. Also, the buildings look more ragged, as if it's been abandoned. The buildings also looked dark, as a fiery explosion happened around there.

The three looked back, and sees that a bunch of the same monsters were chasing after them.

"We need to split up!" The bear yelled, as they ran.

"That's a bad idea!" Chie yelled.

"No, it's actually safer!" Tai exclaimed.

"It is?"

"Chie, Sora, take my little sister and get out of here!" Tai yelled.

"What!? But I can't leave you, Tai!" Kari exclaimed.

"Kari, don't worry, we'll see each other again. Don't worry. Just get out of here!"

"You heard the boy!" Chie exclaimed, taking Kari's hand. "Don't worry! You can count on us! C'mon Hikari-chan! Let's get out of here!"

"But, Tai!" Kari yelled, as Chie pulls her and Sora out of there, and down a different street. Luckily, the shadow creatures weren't following them...From the looks.

"Okay, well, they're safe, I hope." Yu said.

"What about us?" Yosuke said, as they ran.

"Uh…Same tactic!"

"What!? We're splitting up again!?"

"Yeah. Tai and Matt will go off on their own."

"Wait, what?" Matt said.

Suddenly, one of the shadows lunged themselves forward, and almost attacked them, but they dodged. In the process, the shadows created a wall in between Yu and Yosuke, and Tai and Matt and the mysterious bear.

"Oh boy…" Tai groaned.

"H-Hey, you two need to get out of here!" Yosuke yelled. "Run!"

"But what about you guys?" Matt said.

"Don't worry about us! Run!"

Tai, Matt and the bear were taking steps back, as the shadows were looking at them. Even though they're all mouths, they still feel like they're giving them menacing glares. Regardless, they start to run the direction behind them, and the shadows were giving chase, leaving the other two teens to deal with the other shadows.

* * *

Tai, Matt and the bear kept running in the direction they were going, trying to outrun the shadows.

"Hey, you know a lot about these monsters, right?" Tai said. "Can't you do something about them?"

"I can't fight!" The bear yelled. "I'll get creamed easily!"

"Well, we don't have anymore options, than run away."

At the same time, Chie was holding on to Kari's arm, as she, Kari and Sora was running.

"So, how much farther?" Sora asked.

"I don't know! I can't see a thing in this fog!" Chie yelled.

"I can." Kari said, as she is the one in the group that has the glasses.

"Hey, how can you see through the fog in those things anyway?"

"I, just, can."

Suddenly, they gasped, and skidded to a halt, when more shadows appeared in front of the three.

"Oh no! We're cornered!" Chie exclaimed.

Tai, Matt and the bear meanwhile was a couple blocks away from there, and they saw the girls were in trouble…Or rather Tai could, considering he also has glasses that allows him to see through this thick fog.

"The girls are in trouble!" Tai exclaimed.

"Wha? They are?" Matt said, confused, as he can't see through the fog. Though the bear can, which makes sense, as he lives in this strange shadow world.

"Oh no, they're goners!" The bear exclaimed.

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Tai yelled, running towards the girls.

"Tai! Wait!" Matt exclaimed. "You can't fight them!" He and the bear started giving chase, until Tai was stopped by more shadows.

"Great…" Tai groaned. "Get outta our way! Just leave us alone! We just want to go home!"

"Look guys, we have to get going right now!" The bear exclaimed, trying to pull them, however, Tai and Matt couldn't move their legs for some reason. They couldn't budge at all.

"I…can't move my legs…!"

"Me neither!" Matt yelled.

The girls a few blocks down are also having the same problems. Their legs were stuck in place also. As they struggled to move their legs, the shadow creatures inch closer and closer to them. Kari expected them to lunge at them, and take a huge bite out of them. She could envision the monsters biting into her arms, her legs, and her neck, ripping them off. And that was about to become a reality. The shadow monsters lunged themselves forward towards the two separate groups, and they all cowered in fear, ready to expect death to come. However, some sort of presence came to the Kamiya siblings.

 _I am thou…_

The same voices came back to them, and their eyes shot open. At the same time, the shadows stopped, dead in their tracks. Everyone sees that they're still alive, and that something was provoking the creatures to stop.

 _Thou, art I…_

"H-Huh? Hey, they stopped." Chie said. Just then, cards start falling. Two cards floated down to Tai and Kari respectively. They were glowing with a mysterious blue glow.

"Hey, what's that?" Matt said.

Upon closer inspection, these cards have some sort of picture on them. Tai has the picture of a disfigured woman on it, seemingly taming what seems to be a beast of some kind, with the roman numerals XI (11) on the bottom, while Kari's has a picture of a balance, with one half of the card in red, and the other in white, with the roman numerals VIII (8) on the bottom. Both of these cards have the twos' respective crest symbols on it – For Tai, it was the symbol of Courage, and Kari the symbol of Light.

 _Thou has opened thy eyes…The time is Now!_

A blue glow then appears under the two, and they were imbedded with some sort of strong power. This power feels, familiar. As if this power has been with them the whole time. The two of them then has some sort of word pop into their minds. They have never heard of it before, nor do they know what it means, however, they know it now, and they felt like shouting it.

" _Per…so…na!"_ The two yelled, seemingly as if they were synchronized, as they clench their hands onto the card, making the sound of shattered glass. The cards dissolved into them, and some strange power was forming.

 _ ***REACH OUT TO THE TRUTH***_

Blue flames then start rising up from them both, and some creature was forming behind them. The others have no idea what was going on.

"K-Kamiya…?" Chie said, meekly.

"What is going on?" Matt said, surprised.

These giant humanoid creatures seem to resemble the two in a way.

Tai's have spiky hair, a cape, and a full suit of armor, along with its right hand being replaced with a claw. The suit of armor was orange colored in some places, such as the torso and the legs. The torso piece most notably has a head of a dinosaur in the middle of it. A familiar beast to Tai…The torso piece also has the symbol of the crest of Courage.

Kari's creature has brown hair tied in a ponytail that falls to its legs, along with a yellow sundress, with pink leggings. The leggings have spikes on them, along with quivers on both of them. There's also a big bow on the creature's back that has a spike on both ends of the weapon that made it both a melee weapon, and a ranged weapon. On both of the creature's arm was armor that seemed to be there for something other than protection. On the front of the creature's sundress, is the symbol of the crest of Light.

The two kids look at these humanoid creatures in astonishment, but then smiled, trusting these creatures. They also feel a familiar presence within these things, as if they're old friends. What's more is that the two somehow knew the types of creatures these things were. They called them, Personas…

"This is getting insane…" Matt said, astonished.

A couple of the shadow creatures then lunged themselves forward, and tried attacking the Persona creatures, however, they were commanded to counter. Tai's Persona monster struck one of the monsters using its claws, while another was impaled by Kari's Persona monster's weapon. The more that these Personas attack, Tai and Kari were getting more tired. It seemed the more these things attacked, the more tired the two were getting.

It was as if these creatures were connected to the kids in some sort of way. This was further proved when the shadow creatures bit onto Tai's Persona, and he felt the pain of the monsters' teeth sinking into his Persona. They were biting right onto its arm, and Tai flung his arm out, yelling, "Get off me!" The Persona flung the shadows off of it, following Tai's movement.

Some of the attacking monsters were toppled down onto the ground, giving the Personas a chance to attack. They killed some of the monsters, in which they dissolved into red liquid. One monster tried sneak attacking Tai's Persona, however, he sensed it coming, and countered by impaling it with his claw. From the looks, blood poured from the wound on the shadow. The Persona then flung the shadow towards some of the other attacking monsters, and toppled them down to the ground.

"ALKE!" Tai somehow knew the Persona's name, and he commanded it to strike the monsters when they were down. The Persona, named Alke, brought his hand forward, and fire struck one of the monsters.

A few more remained however, but Kari then stepped up to finish them.

"PHANES!" She called out to her Persona, and she brought her hand forward. Lightning then rained down onto one of the monsters, and the two kids continued to command their Personas to shoot out the fire and lightning elements, until no shadows remained.

The Personas had finished off all the monsters, and they weren't in any danger anymore. However, the two kids were exhausted from their Personas fighting, as they were panting. The others were still in shock, and confused to what just happened.

"Kari…" Sora said.

"That was…Amazing." Matt said.

"That big monster just came out of you, and it just killed those guys." Chie said.

"What was that exactly? Did you say it was a per…"

"Persona." Tai said. "This power…"

"…It's something that I just have…" Kari said, in her girl group. They both looked at them, and then smiled, indicating that everything was all right. So first was the mysterious death of Mayumi Yamano, then this whole entire world inside of a television, and then suddenly Tai and Kari got new Persona powers. Things shouldn't become weirder for this group, but it will, and with this newfound power that the two will have, it looks as if the Digidestined are back once again.

 _ **TO BE CONTINUED**_


	3. Chapter 3: Something Amiss in the Air

Author's Note: Just a reminder, this story is told in the Digidestined kids' perspective most of the time.

 _CHAPTER 3:_  
Something Amiss in the Air

 _ **Persona series © ATLUS  
Digimon Adventure © Toei Animation**_

 _ **4/14 Friday  
After School**_

The Personas hovers above the group, observing the battlefield. Their controllers stared at their Personas, in amazement. They were controlling them, and even they were surprised. The Personas then looked at their controllers, and only their stare spoke all the words. They are on their side, and will come to them to aid them in battle. Tai and Kari nods, and the Personas disappeared into them; disappearing into their souls.

"That was, wicked!" Matt exclaimed. The two groups regrouped with each other, and asked them a bazillion questions.

"H-How did you two call those things?" Sora said.

"What did you call them? Persona?"

"Guys, guys, calm down." Tai said. "Even we don't know much about them."

"We just, do." Kari said. "We just know that they're on our side."

"Settle down, all of you!" The bear exclaimed. "You're pressuring our senseis."

"Sensei?" Chie said.

"Wait, you're calling us sensei?" Tai said.

"What you did was amazing!" The bear exclaimed. "I'm one impressed bear!"

"So, I see you guys handled those shadows as well." Narukami and Hanamura walked up to them, perfectly fine as well.

"You lost those things?" Tai asked.

"You should have seen it!" Yosuke yelled. "This thing came out of Narukami, and just completely destroyed those things!"

"You too!?" Sora exclaimed.

"So, Tai, Kari and Yu all have those Persona things?" Matt said.

"Calm down everyone! Our senseis are getting nervous." The bear said.

"Why are you calling us sensei all of a sudden?" Yu said.

"You've been hiding those secret weapons from the shadows, and when you unleashed it, BOOM! Shadows be gone! Those shadows were so scared of you! You should have seen their faces!"

"Uh, aren't they supposed to be all lips?" Kari said, sweatdropping.

"Oh, our senseis are so amazing! Don't you all think so?"

"Dude, you call them sensei, and don't give any of us any respect?" Yosuke said, pushing the bear down, irritated, in which the bear immediately rolled back onto his feet.

"Sorry…"

"Aw, it's okay." Kari said. "You can call us whatever you want. Oh right! We didn't introduce ourselves to you. My name's Hikari, or Kari. What's your name?"

"Teddie." The bear said.

"Heh. Figures." Yosuke said, sweatdropping.

"Okay, well that was all cool and all, but, can we just focus on to the fact that we're still stuck here!?" Chie exclaimed.

"Don't worry about that." The bear, named Teddie said. "I can get you back. Just follow me." The bear then starts walking, and the group of 7 follows.

* * *

They all returned to the studio area, in which Teddie tapped his foot twice on the ground. Then, like magic, a stack of TVs appear in the middle of the place.

"Whoa! Where'd all those TVs come from?" Tai said.

"This is your way back." Teddie said. "You should go back. This world isn't made for humans. Have you noticed feeling a bit sick?"

When Teddie mentions it, they suddenly remembered that they felt a bit lightheaded from being in this world. Their bodies feel heavy, and they feel weak.

"Ugh, yeah." Sora said, holding her stomach.

"You should head back before you get even more sick." Teddie said.

They nodded, and they walked towards the stack of TVs. Teddie then walked up behind them.

"Okay, in you go!" He said, pushing them all into the TVs.

"H-Hey! Watch where you're pushing!" Chie exclaimed.

"Agh, it's a tight squeeze in here." Kari groaned.

Teddie then managed to push everyone in there, and he waved to them.

* * *

They remember falling out of something, and they landed onto a checkered ground. They hear muzak in the area, as they opened their eyes, and they look to see that they're in an isle in a store. They looked behind them, and they saw the same big flatscreen TV they went into in order to get to the parallel world. It was showing rippling effects on the screen, before subsiding, and the portal closed. They had made it back into the department store, without gaining any sort of attention luckily.

"D-Did we make it back?" Chie said, looking around, frantically.

The intercom pings, and a female voice rings in the store.

[Attention, shoppers. Our daily limited-time sale will now begin at the side dish area on the first floor. Why not try the delicious, fresh produce Junes picked for you as your side dish for dinner tonight? All ages are invited to take advantage of this incredible bargain!]

"Dinner?" Tai repeated. "Wow, we were in there for a couple hours."

"Mom and dad must be worrying about us." Kari said.

Yosuke was about to tell everyone to go home, until he sees a familiar poster against the wall he was looking towards.

"Hey…that's right!"

"What is it?" Yu asked. "Did you remember you have to go to the bathroom?"

"YIPE! Why did you remind me!?" Yosuke exclaimed, grabbing his groin.

"Yosuke, spit it out." Chie said. "What is it?"

"That poster over there, I thought I recognized it." Yosuke points to the poster on the wall.

"Huh? What about it?" Sora asked.

"That's the poster we saw in that weird, creepy room with the noose hanging on the ceiling."

"It is?" Kari said.

"Hey…yeah, they do look the same." Chie said. "The face was cut out, but now that I look at it, those posters were posters of Misuzu Hiiragi…"

"You mean that lady on the news?" Kari said.

"She's been all over lately."

"Wasn't it because of something about the husband having an affair with that Yamano lady?" Sora said.

"Yeah, and she died the other day."

"Hey, so could that mean…that room, and that noose…" Yu thought. "Could that be related to her death?… She probably could have done that purposefully to herself." Yosuke then shakes his head.

"Yaagh! No! I don't want to think about it anymore." Yosuke exclaimed. "We gotta stop talking about this. I'm just going to wipe today's events from my brain. I don't think my poor heart can take it anymore."

"And your bladder." Yu added.

"Knock it off, bro!"

"Ugh, I'm chilly…" Kari complained.

"It's not even that cold in here." Yosuke said. "But yet, it feels like it's 50 degrees in here."

"Do you remember what Teddie said?" Yu said. "He said we might get even more sick if we hung out in that strange place."

"Wonder why though." Tai said. "Ah, never mind that. Let's just all go home."

Everyone nodded, and they started off back to their homes.

* * *

 _ **Evening**_

Tai and Kari enter through the door, after trekking through the rain outside.

"Hey, we're home." Tai said, as they walked into the living room, where dinner was ready.

"Just in time too." Mr. Kamiya said. "We're about ready to eat."

"Where have you two been all day?" Mrs. Kamiya asked.

"Oh, we were hanging out with some cool teens." Kari said. "They were named Yu, Chie and Yosuke. We were at Junes."

"Oh! I heard that Junes is a popular department store around here."

"Yeah, we were checking out the big TVs over there, but-"

"But a sale just happened over there, and Junes' happy hour just started." Tai quickly jumped in, trying to hide the fact that they actually went into the TV, and fought mysterious monsters known as shadows. "We were also trying to see all the other cool stuff over there, but we didn't watch the time, and it got away from us."

"Well, I think it's nice that you've made some new friends, but you should really watch the time." Mrs. Kamiya said.

"Sorry." Kari apologized. She then sneezed, and sniffed.

"Oh, are you coming down with something?"

"It's probably because of this rain." Mr. Kamiya said. "I'll get you some cold medicine, sweetie." He then got up, and walked on over to the kitchen. Tai then sneezed as well. "I'll get some medicine for you too, Tai."

While the dad was getting medicine, the news channel was talking about the death of Mayumi Yamano. Her whereabouts before the death remained unknown, however, it's been stated that the police investigation has found out that she has been staying at the Amagi Inn. Apparently this is a pretty well known inn ran by the Amagi family.

The surname reminded the two kids of Yukiko Amagi. They were surprised to find out that she and her family runs this well-known inn. They never knew. Course, they only just met Yukiko one time, and that was the other day when they found Yamano's body.

The news channel had another commentator on set. He was saying that Yukiko could potentially take over the family business this spring. He then goes on to commenting about how she would be one of the youngest managers on record, and how he should book a trip over there.

Awkwardly, the news anchor moves on to the weather report. The rain will stop tonight, and heavy fog warnings will be in effect in Inaba until the morning. Then the day after that comes more rain, before the sun will finally show itself to the quiet town.

The dad came back with some medicine, and the two kids took it.

"You two should get to bed early." Mr. Kamiya said. "A spring cold can be rough."

The two kids nod, and after a while, they went upstairs to their bedroom, and called it a night.

Tai stayed up a little bit through, still wondering about that Persona ability he, Kari and Yu had. They somehow knew how to control them, and they knew who they were exactly. The only thing they don't know is, what they are. They only know their names. They don't know exactly what they are, or where they came from for that matter. They could be related to the shadow monsters, but…

Tai grows drowsier the more he thinks about it, and goes to sleep.

* * *

 _ **Late Night**_

The fog has set in for the night, and won't go away until the morning, as the forecaster described it. Tai and Kari were fast asleep in their beds, exhausted from today. They really felt sluggish when they got home, so they really needed the rest.

However, their TV mysteriously came on. It wasn't even raining outside, so the Midnight channel wasn't scheduled to broadcast tonight. Just then, two figures came crawling out of the TV, and fell onto the ground. That didn't wake up the two from their sleep, however. They then crept up closer to the two kids. Still, they hadn't woken up. Finally, one of the figures jumped onto Tai's bed, and looked over him. Now that made him open his eyes a little, and Tai saw the figure, close to him. He then yelped in panic, and threw his pillow at the figure, making them fall off the bed, groaning.

"Ow! What's the big idea?" They groaned.

Tai looked over the bed, looking to see whom he just hit. Kari also was woken up from the commotion, and she too looked over the bed.

"What was that, Tai?" Kari asked.

"Don't know." Tai said, getting onto the floor, watching the pillow on the ground. The figures that he just hit were under the pillow, and they were groaning. They were also pretty small, considering the pillow was barely covering both of their bodies.

"Ngh, well this is a good way of greeting old friends who haven't seen you in a while!" One of them groaned, clearly agitated.

"Huh? Wait, that voice." Tai said, recognizing that voice. He then takes off the pillow, and the two kids were in shock to see long time friends; friends that they journeyed with through out the ends of the Digital World. They were none other than their Digimon partners, who they always remembered…except for a few seconds ago, in which Tai didn't even know the two figures were their partners in the first place. Tai's Digimon was in his fresh form, named Koromon, and Kari's was in her rookie form, named Salamon.

"Koromon? Salamon?" Kari said, surprised.

"Never throw a pillow at us again, please?" Salamon complained.

"Sorry. I didn't know that was you guys." Tai said. "Anyway, how did you guys get back into the real world? What are you doing here exactly?"

"We don't even know ourselves." Koromon said.

"All we remember was something attacking us in the Digital World, and here we are." Salamon said. "We went through some sort of portal to get here."

"Portal?" Tai said. He then looked towards the TV, in which there were still ripples of black and white on the screen, indicating that the portal was still active. "You mean the TV?"

"Huh? If that's where we came from, then I guess it was our portal."

"Anyways, what happened to your room, Tai?" Koromon asked, looking around the place. "It looks different than the last time."

"We're actually not in Odaiba anymore." Tai said.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I mean VenomMyotismon pretty much destroyed most of Odaiba when he attacked, remember?"

"Oh right."

"So, where are we, exactly?" Salamon asked.

"A town named Inaba." Kari said. "It's pretty quiet around here, and Miko seems to like exploring around here."

"So, is this where we're staying?" Koromon asked. "Cause, we don't know how to get back to the Digital World."

Tai does kind of agree to Koromon there. They did come through the TV from the looks, but if they were to go back, they would most likely end up back in the mysterious TV world. The computer would be another way, but at the moment, they can't do that without waking up their parents. Besides, they all longed to be together again, so what's the rush to get them back into the Digital World?

"So Tai? Can we stay here?"

"Alright, you two can stay here as long as you like." Tai said.

"Really? Thanks Tai!"

"Shhh!" Tai covered Koromon's mouth. "You'll wake up mom and dad."

"Oh, sorry."

"It's been a while since we've been together." Kari said, picking up Salamon, and putting her beside her in bed.

"Yeah."

"So, are you sure you don't remember much about getting here?"

"Mmm, nope." Salamon shook her head. Then, something just came to her. "Oh, but, I do remember some sort of words that somebody said."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I don't know if I said them, or if someone else said them."

"What did you remember?"

"I think the words are, 'I am thou, thou art I.'"

"Really? Huh, weird. I remember some voice in my head saying that."

"Really? You heard those words too?" Kari nods, and Tai raises an eyebrow. He starts to get drowsy though.

"Okay guys. We can talk about this in the morning." Tai said, getting sleepy.

"Okay. G'night."

They all said good night, and they all went to sleep.

* * *

 _ **4/15 Saturday  
Early Morning  
Rainy**_

The fog has lifted, and you'd be able to see clearly again. The birds were chirping, and raindrops were falling from the leaves on the trees. Everything seemed so peaceful, when in reality, it wasn't. It wasn't at all. On a telephone pole, some wires were entangled. Something must have fell onto them, causing them to get tangled. What made them get tangled however, was the scary part.

It was someone's body. A body was entangled on the wires. It was hanging upside down. From the looks of it, they go to Yasogami High, judging from the school uniform they have on. Whoever they were, they weren't moving at all. Their eyes were hanging, and they remained motionless. This person, was dead.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Kamiya house, Tai and Kari rushed out of the door, holding umbrellas. They were feeling much better after their journey in the TV world yesterday. Their Digimon partners were hiding out in their backpacks, acting like toys.

While they were walking, the Digimon peered out of the backpacks to observe the new setting they were in.

"Wow. This place sure is quiet." Salamon said.

"Yeah. I remember you guys living in a small room."

"That was an apartment building." Tai said. "Of course it's small. And mom and dad aren't quite used to taking care of a whole entire house."

"Even we haven't gotten used to this place yet." Kari said.

As they were walking, they were walking on a school zone, they walked past two high school girls that were conversing something.

"Hey, did you hear the sirens this morning?" One of them said.

"I saw three police cars zooming by."

"You live by the police station, right? Did you see anything."

"All I heard was yelling. I didn't see anything. Total disappointment."

"Geez, you're supposed to pay more attention to stuff like that. How else are we supposed to get the juicy stories?"

They then hear police sirens in the distance. They were gradually getting closer, before retreating again. The two kids and Digimon all looked at each other, curious to what the sirens were all about.

"What are the police doing out here?" Kari said.

"They sounded real close." Koromon said.

"I got a bad feeling about this." Tai mumbled. They then continued to walk on, and are trying to forget the sirens for a second.

* * *

They then reached the school, where like always, their friends were waiting for them.

"Hey Tai. Is it true?" T.K. said, running up to them.

"What's true?" Tai said.

"Did you really go into a TV? Like, for real?"

"TV?" Koromon stuck out of Tai's backpack.

"You never told us about that, Tai." Salamon did the same.

The 6 kids were surprised when they saw the Digimon.

"Huh? How are Koromon and Salamon here?" Izzy said, surprised.

"Why are they even here?" Matt said.

"We don't know." Koromon said. "Tai said we came out of his TV."

"The TV? But, that's where that strange TV world is."

Tai and Kari told everyone else about what happened in the TV world, and how they managed to summon mysterious beings known as Personas. They fought the mysterious shadows, and managed to kill them all.

"Wow, that sounds cool!" T.K. said. "How'd you do it?"

"Some card floated down to my hand, and I crushed it, and Phanes appeared behind me." Kari said.

"Yeah, the same with Alke." Tai said.

"Is that what you call those Persona creatures?" Matt said.

"Yeah. I dunno why we're calling them that, though. The name just popped into my mind."

"Alke?" Koromon repeated.

"Phanes?" Salamon repeated.

"What's wrong?" Kari asked.

"That name, feels familiar…" Salamon said.

"Yeah, Alke does as well." Koromon said.

"Did you hear it from somewhere?" Izzy said.

"No, it's the first time I heard it, but I know it some how."

The school bell rings.

"Ack, we should get to class." Tai said. "We'll talk about this later."

They all nod, and the Digimon retreats back into the backpack.

* * *

 _ **Lunchtime**_

The kids were dismissed for lunch. As Kari and T.K. were walking towards the lunchroom, they accidentally bumped into a girl with her hair in twintails, and a dress with two shades of red on it, with a white turtleknecked long sleeve under it. She looked like she was a year younger than them.

"Oops! Sorry." She apologized.

"No, it's okay." Kari said.

"Hey, aren't you new here?"

"Sorta. We came a few days ago from a city."

"Oh, I had someone come from a big city too!"

"Really?" Kari then remembers Yu, and how he had moved in to Inaba when his parents were working abroad. "Do you mean Yu Narukami?"

"Oh! Yeah! That's him! Do you know him?"

"Yeah, he's our friend. How do you know him?"

"He moved in with my dad."

"With your dad? Are you two related?"

"Sorta."

"Oh! You mean you're his little sister?"

"Not really."

"Oh, so you're cousins."

"Uh-huh."

"Well, he's been nice to us. He's a nice guy to hang out with. My name is Kari Kamiya, and this is T.K. What's your name?"

"Nanako Dojima."

"Nice to meet you." T.K. said.

"Thanks. My dad is a detective, so I don't really see him that much."

"Oh, really? That's cool. What about your mom?"

Nanako stayed silent on that part.

"…! Oh geez. I-I'm sorry. I didn't…"

"No, it's okay."

"If it makes you feel any better, my parents aren't having a good time too. They got a divorce, and I haven't been able to see my big brother for a while."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Nah, it's okay. We still live in different houses here, but my brother is only a walk away from there."

The three continued talking, as they walked to the lunchroom. They've gotten off to a great start in a new friendship.

* * *

 _ **After School**_

The Digidestined all met up with each other again. Nanako from earlier was walking by them.

"Bye! I'll see you later!" She waved to Kari and T.K.

"See ya, Nanako!" T.K. waved.

The girl then walked on home.

"I see you two made a new friend." Sora said.

"Yeah. She said she's Yu's cousin." Kari said.

"Really? That's neat."

"She's really sweet." Salamon said, popping out of Kari's backpack. "Like you, Kari."

"Hee hee, thanks." Kari said.

"Anyway, have any you guys heard the news?" Sora said.

"No, what is it?" Joe said.

"The police found another body this morning. She was a high school student."

Everyone was surprised by that.

"Another body?" Tai said. "Wait, don't tell me…"

"She was dead when they found them."

"Wha!? Someone died again!?" T.K. exclaimed.

"Yup. She was tangled upside down on a telephone pole."

"Upside down on a telephone pole?" Tai said.

"Tai, may we ask what the heck is going on here!?" Koromon exclaimed.

"We should go see Yu and the others." Kari said. "Maybe they know more about it."

"Come to think of it, remember that weird room in the TV world?" Sora said.

"Yeah. That seemed connected to that Yamano lady's death." Tai said. "And this girl died the same way that Yamano did. We need to get to the bottom of this. We're headed into the TV world to investigate."

"Hey, and don't forget us." T.K. said. "We also want to see that TV place too."

"A-Are you sure that's a good idea?" Joe asked, nervously. "You said that place was filled with monsters."

"Joe, don't forget, we're ready for action." Koromon said. "You still got your Digivices, right?"

"They're back home…Er, this home at least. Not back in the Odaiba wreck."

"We got ours, just in case." Kari said, showing her's. It was clipped onto her pink pants, and covered by her long yellow sleeveless shirt, so nobody would notice it much. Tai's was clipped to his brown shorts, but he thought nobody would mind if they saw it. As long as they don't go haywire, and cause their Digimon to digivolve in the middle of the classroom, they were fine to bring them along.

"Okay, so let's all go to Junes. Hopefully the others are there." Tai said.

* * *

At the Junes department store, they all entered through it, and went into the electronics department of the store. The kids who haven't been over there seemed to like the look of the place. It was big, and looked like it got plenty of products in it. When they got to the electronics department, they reach the same big flatscreen.

"So, you said all you have to do is reach into the TV, and you make a portal appear?" Joe said.

"It only works for Tai and Kari for some reason." Sora said.

Tai walks up to the big TV, and puts his hand on the screen. Again, his hand flowed through like it was nothing.

"Whoa, that's so cool!" T.K. exclaimed.

"Don't get separated everyone." Tai said. "Stay close."

"Oh, wait, we forgot." Kari said. She reached into her pocket, and got out the same glasses Teddie had given them.

"Oh, right." Tai did the same, and they both put them on.

"Why do you need those?" Joe said. "Did your eyesight go bad?"

"No, but for some reason when we put these on, we see the world better. There's a strange fog that covers the place, and we need these to see through it for some reason."

"Hey, they said it works." Matt said.

"Shouldn't we be prepared, just in case?" Mimi said.

"There's things in this store that could be used as weapons. I'm sure we could find something we can use."

They all then split up, searching the store for potential weapons to protect themselves from.

They all got back with a few purchased items. These are the only things they can buy for now. They bought a golf club (A driver), a toy bow, with blunt headed arrows, and large wrenches.

"This is all that we can get?" Tai said.

"We aren't rich, you know?" Joe said. "We can't get anything more than this. And besides, we got some good blunt weapons. The bow set I heard shoots up to 100 feet. I'm surprised they haven't recalled these from stores yet."

"I'll be surprised if these stuff even hurts those things."

"We should go soon." Izzy said. "The store's happy hour starts soon."

They nod, and Tai once again sticks his hand into the TV. The others stayed close to him.

"Okay! Let's get going!" They all rushed into the TV, and are headed on over to the TV world. Things from then on will start to unfold, and the Digidestined will start to learn what is happening in their new home, as well as learn of their new mission.

 _ **TO BE CONTINUED**_


	4. Chapter 4: A Mystery In Need of Solving

_CHAPTER 4:_  
A Mystery In Need of Solving

 _ **Persona series © ATLUS  
Digimon Adventure © Toei Animation**_

 _ **4/15 Saturday**_  
 ** _After School_**

Everyone fell down onto the ground of the studio place in the TV world. Likewise, it was rough.

"Ugh, that was a long drop…" Mimi complained, getting up.

"Whoa, you guys weren't kidding…" T.K. said, talking about the fog, and how it was hard to see through it. "I really can't see through this fog."

"What's with this fog anyway, and how can you guys see through it with those glasses?" Izzy asked.

"I don't know." Tai said. They then hear footsteps approaching them, and only Tai and Kari can see the person coming. The others could only see a shadowy figure in the fog.

"Whoa! What's that?" T.K. said.

"Ahh! Is that one of those shadow monsters!?" Joe exclaimed.

"Actually." Tai started.

"You guys? What are you guys doing back here?" The figure said, walking up to them. It's the bear they know, named Teddie.

"Hi Teddie." Kari said.

"You know it's dangerous to come back here. That's a one-way gate you know? Remember? You need my help to get out of here. You're 'bery' lucky that I was here."

"Sorry. But we really wanted to show our friends this place. These guys are our friends who goes to school with us, and these guys are-"

Kari then realizes that the Digimon aren't there with them. Koromon and Salamon were missing.

"Uh…where'd they go?"

"They're gone!" T.K. said.

"Koromon! Salamon! Where are you?" Kari called out.

Nothing answered her.

"Strange. Where did they go?"

"They gone in with us, right?" Tai said.

"Look, you guys shouldn't be here, even you sensei." Teddie said, nervously.

"Why?"

"There are some really strong shadows up ahead, and that's because of someone being thrown in here."

"Wait, another guy was thrown into this place, like us?"

"I heard a girl, but then the fog lifted, and I couldn't hear them anymore."

"So, they disappeared?" Izzy asked the bear.

"No. They didn't." The bear is getting scared for a second.

"What? What is it?" Kari said.

"The shadows got them."

"The shadows?"

"Wait, you mean, the shadows killed that girl?" Tai said. Teddie nods. "Girl that has been killed here…" Tai then snaps his finger. "That's It!"

"What? What is it?" Mimi said.

"I know how those deaths occurred in Inaba!"

"You do?" T.K. said.

"Somebody has been throwing people into the TV, and then the shadows here are killing them!"

"Hey, that makes sense." Izzy said. "It's actually a good plan. The person wouldn't be accused for murder if something supernatural is doing the killing for them!"

"Does that mean…?" Mimi said.

"Yup." Tai said. "Guys, there is a serial killer in Inaba."

Everyone gasped upon hearing that.

"You really think so?" T.K. said.

"Why exactly are they doing that?" Kari asked.

"It's a serial killer." Matt said. "Maybe they think this town stinks."

"Well, we're not gonna let this guy get away with killing people!" Tai exclaimed.

"So, how are we gonna catch the guy?" T.K. said.

"Well, first, we should-"

Just then, two guys fell from the sky, and landed onto him, roughly.

"Oww…"

Kari instantly recognizes the two guys. They were Yu and Yosuke.

"Oh, Yu, Yosuke!" She said.

"Ugh…Kari-chan?" Yosuke groaned, as he and Yu sits up.

"What are you guys doing here?" Yu said, looking at the 7 kids.

"Ngh! Can you, get offa me?" Tai groaned, from under them.

"Oh, sorry." Yu and Yosuke got off of Tai, who was dazed from the impact.

"Uuurgh…I was just having my moment too…"

"So, what exactly are you guys doing here?" Yosuke said.

The Digidestined told the two what they figured out.

"A serial killer? Here?" Yosuke said.

"Yep." Tai said. "We're thinking of catching them."

"Sounds like a plan." Yu said.

"Yo! Dude! These are kids we're talking about!" Yosuke exclaimed at Yu. "We can't risk your lives like this."

"Oh, don't worry." T.K. said.

"Yeah, we risk our lives lots of times in the Digital world."

"The Digital World?" Yosuke said.

"Hey, that reminds me, you said something about Digimon yesterday." Yu said. "What was that all about?"

"Well, the Digimon are known as Digital Monsters." Izzy said. "To keep it simple, they come from a different world, parallel to ours. We've been summoned to the Digital World a couple of times to battle evil, and save the Digital World."

"Dude, I have no idea what this kid is saying, but already I can tell he's smarter than some of the second years in class." Yosuke mumbled to Yu.

"I agree." Yu said.

"Okay, so wait. You saved some other world from monsters, who are also just, digital?"

"Yep." Izzy nods. Yu and Yosuke then sweatdrops, not believing that of course.

"Riiiight. Uh…"

"Okay, it is hard to believe, but it's true."

"And besides, we got weapons to fight." T.K. said.

"Uh, well, not quite." Tai said, sweatdropping, while holding the driver.

"Don't worry." Yu said, holding another driver. "Same here."

"It's better than nothing!" Yosuke defended.

"Listen everyone!" Teddie exclaimed, drawing attention back to him. "All that I know is that somebody has been throwing people in here, and that's been making my home more and more messed up. If we don't do something soon, my home will become a disaster!"

"Your home!?" Yosuke exclaimed, frightening the bear. "What about the fact that more and more people in our home will die if this keeps going on, bear!? In fact, what's with that costume anyway? Take it off and show us who you really are!"

Yosuke then jumped onto the frightened bear, and started unzipping the zipper on his body.

"AH! GET OFFA ME!" Teddie yelled, as Yosuke unzipped the top piece, and took it off of Teddie. What was inside of Teddie made Yoskue, and most of the others frightened.

"AH! AH!" Yoskue yelled, as he stumbled onto the ground. "What the hell!?"

Teddie's body was flailing his arms without the headpiece on, with nothing inside of the supposed costume. There's nothing in it, which suggests that the 'costume' in whole is a sentient being.

"Huh. There's nothing inside." Yu said, unfazed.

"How weird!" Mimi exclaimed. "How the heck does this thing work!?"

Yu walks on over to the headpiece, and attaches it back onto the body, allowing Teddie to talk again.

"Gah…Thanks a lot, sensei." Teddie said.

"Yo, dude, does anything rattle you?" Yosuke said, sweatdropping, noting Yu's expressionless reaction to most stuff around here, to which Yu looked at Yosuke funny. Teddie then stood up.

"I understand that more people will die in your world if the culprit keeps throwing them in here, but, this is my home." Teddie said, sorrowfully. "I just want to live here peacefully. If this keeps up, my home will become a complete mess! And then…and then…I…" Teddie then starts sobbing in front of everyone.

"H-Hey! Why are you crying?" Tai said, nervously. "S-Stop! It'll be alright."

"Hey, wipe those cute eyes." Kari said, patting Teddie. "Don't worry. We're gonna find the culprit, and we're gonna stop him. Right everyone?" She looked at them with determination. If they want everything to become normal again, they see no choice.

"Y-You are?" Teddie said, calming down.

Tai all of a sudden remembers something. He remembers something from the train ride to Inaba a few days ago. He remembered the words of Igor in the Velvet Room.

" _It seems you will encounter a misfortune at your destination, and a great mystery will be imposed upon you."_

Tai had forgotten this dream for a while, mostly because he thought it was a load of bologna, and now that he had remembered it, he realized that the fortune telling was all coming true. They're thrown into a new misfortune, and it seems that it will be all up to them to find out what's been causing this series of misfortune events, and put a stop to it. It looks like once again the Digidestined are on a job to protect their world.

"Yeah. We're gonna find whoever's doing this, and stop him." Tai said.

"T-Thank you!" Teddie exclaimed.

"Are you sure it's alright, Tai?" Sora said.

"Don't worry. Inaba won't be seeing anymore dead bodies hung up to dry with the Digidestined on the job!" Tai then looked at the two teens, remembering them. "Oh, and then some."

Yosuke grumbled, and sweatdrops.

"Sounds good." Yu said. "So, where should we search first?"

"Well, like I said, I smelt some different shadows around here." Teddie said. "They were off that way. Don't worry. With our senseis around, we should be good."

"Why are you calling them sensei anyway?" Mimi said.

"Well, he started calling us that when we summoned our Persona creatures." Tai said.

"Oh yeah! Can you show us that?" T.K. said.

"Well, first, I wanna see where Salamon and Koromon went." Kari said. "Where are they?"

"They're around here somewhere." Tai said. "They came in with us at the same time. Unless they got dropped off somewhere else."

"Well, I'm sure your friends could be up ahead over there." Teddie said, pointing towards the front bridge.

"And maybe in the process, we will find out what happened to Saki-senpai…" Yosuke said.

"Hm? Saki?" Sora said.

"Saki Konishi was my senpai…She was the one who was killed this morning…"

The kids were surprised to hear that.

"Oh, I'm sorry…" Kari said.

"That must be rough to hear." Matt said.

"That's why I'm here." Yosuke said. "To find out what happened to senpai."

"Well, with us around here, we'll act as an extra pair of eyes." Tai said. He then faced Teddie. "Alright Teddie, take us to the place you were talking about."

"You got it." Teddie said. They then started walking, and followed Teddie to the area that he was talking about.

* * *

Yu, Tai and Kari can only see what they were seeing. This was the same-mirrored Inaba area as the last time. This was the area they ran into when they were running away from the shadows. On the way over here, they exchanged names with each other.

"This is the same place as last time." Yu said. "It doesn't look like it changed one bit."

"Around here was where the last person fell in." Teddie said.

"Last person? You mean Saki-Senpai?" Yosuke said.

"All I know was that it was a girl. I dunno the name."

"Hey, by the way." Mimi started. "Why are you standing far away from us?"

"Oh, uh…I can't stand near you guys, I'll get in the way."

"What? Can't you fight?" Yosuke said.

"No, not really. But I can give you guys moral support from a safe enough distance!"

"You can't fight?" Yu said.

Tai walked up to Teddie, curious, and then touched him lightly. Teddie then fell on over onto his round back, and was wobbling back and forward.

"N-Nooo…" Teddie groaned.

"I-Is this thing for real?" Yosuke groaned. "We swore to find the culprit, and this is the backup we got? So lame…"

"Well, that doesn't matter if we got our Personas around here." Tai said.

"So, what should we do?" Kari asked.

"We should split up. It'll cover some ground faster."

"Okay." Yu said. "Stay together."

They decided to split the group in half. Yu, Yosuke, Sora, Mimi, and Joe went down one street, while Tai, Kari, Matt, T.K. and Izzy went down the other.

"W-Waiit!" Teddie exclaimed, as the groups were leaving. Kari sweatdropped, and rushed towards Teddie, and struggled to bring Teddie back onto his feet again.

* * *

They walk down an alleyway, searching the whole place. They got a bit lost the last time they were chased by shadows. Course, they were panicking, and were trying to get away from the monsters.

"This place really reminds me of Inaba." T.K. said.

"Why does this place look like the shopping district in the town?" Tai mumbled, as they walked.

"Well, this place appeared ever since this Saki and Yamano person appeared in this world." Teddie said. "Y'know, before the shadows got them."

"Yeah, that's something you mentioned earlier. The shadows you said were strong here?"

"Yeah. And they're especially strong and violent whenever the fog disappears."

"Really?" T.K. said.

"Yeah."

"When does it do that?"

"Every so often. I know that when it's foggy on your world, the fog lifts here."

"The fog…" Tai mumbled as they walk.

"What is it, Tai?" Kari said.

"Something that's crossing my mind, but…"

"W-Wait a second!" Teddie exclaimed, sniffing.

"Teddie? What's wrong?" T.K. said.

"What are you smelling?" Kari asked.

"Ah! I-I smell a really big one!" Teddie exclaimed.

"A big what?" Matt said.

"A really strong shadow!"

"Another shadow?" Tai said.

"Where?" Kari said.

They all looked around them; however, they couldn't find what Teddie was talking about. This is just an alleyway. There are only two different directions to look in.

"Nothing's here." Tai said.

"You sure, something is here?" Kari said.

"Y-Yeah." Teddie said. "I'm sure of it."

"Let's just keep a move on." Tai said. "Maybe it won't notice us when we leave."

They all nodded, and kept moving on.

* * *

As they walked, they noticed that they walked into what seemed to be the residential district of Inaba; the mirrored version that is.

"So, now we're at the houses." Kari said.

"Ugh, this is going to take forever to look in if the rest of Inaba is mirrored." Tai said.

"Hey, Matt?" T.K. said.

"Yeah? What is it?" Matt said.

"Isn't your house around here?"

"Huh? No, we just came out of the shopping district. Our houses…" Matt then took a look at the surrounding area. The shopping district isn't really next to their houses; they were a few blocks away. However, Matt and T.K. see that their houses really wasn't far away at all. In fact, they could see them. "Whoa, what the…? They're right here. I could have sworn they weren't until a few minutes away."

"Maybe it's how this world works?" Tai said. "We're used to wacked out worlds like this by now, right?"

"Yeah, from our trip in the Digital World."

"Okay, this is really driving me nuts." Kari groaned. "Koromon! Salamon! Where are you!?"

She called out to the Digimon, but still, there weren't any answers. She hopes they didn't get into any sort of trouble.

"I really hope the shadows didn't eat them…"

"I'm sure they're fine." Tai said. "…I hope."

"Hey, wait Matt!" Teddie yelled suddenly. Tai and Kari suddenly noticed that Matt and T.K. went off into Matt's house.

"Hey! Matt! Couldn't you wait for us or something!?" They then ran after the two brothers, right into the house.

Matt sees that nothing really changed around here. It looks the same as ever. The only difference is the color, which as said, makes the surroundings look dated, as if it's been abandoned.

"Sheesh, they nailed the place from top to bottom." Matt said. He then walks on over to the fireplace. On it were the exact family pictures that he and his father placed onto the fireplace. There were some with his dad, but there was also one family picture that was taken long ago, before the family was divorced. He and T.K. were so young back then. They probably shouldn't remember the divorce, but it's something that's always stuck with them for their lives. They haven't seen each other since, until their class camping trip, where they reunited after so long. Even then, their brotherly relationship still seemed a bit shoddy, considering they haven't seen each other for so long, until that camping trip.

"Matt?" T.K. said. "Is everything okay?"

"No T.K." A voice said. That was Matt's voice, yet Matt himself didn't even open his mouth. He flinched when he heard that. "Boo Hoo! I haven't seen my little bro in such a long time!"

"Huh!? Who's there!?" The real Matt yelled, and they looked behind them.

"Such a sad time when we had to separate, don't you think?" The voice that sounds like Matt said. Matt and T.K. were surprised what they were seeing in front of them. Tai, Kari and Teddie just caught up to the two, and they saw the same thing.

"Whoa, what the…!?" Tai exclaimed.

"There's, two Matts!?" Kari exclaimed.

True enough, there are two Matts in the room. One was the real one, and the other was a fake. Though it seemed easy to distinguish who's the fake here. The other Matt has a dark aura around him, and he has eerie yellow pupils. Not to mention there was a shadow that surrounds his eyes.

"W-Who are you?" Matt said. "Wh-What makes you think I think of that?"

"Hahahaha…Yeah right. How long are you going to keep deluding yourself?" The other Matt said.

"What?"

"Think about it. How long do you keep lying to yourself? How long do you keep lying to your friends?"

"What's he talking about?" Tai said.

"You don't need them! You're fine on your own!"

"What!?" Matt exclaimed.

"Face it. Ever since becoming a Digidestined, you've been longing for power. You want to be stronger than everyone else. You want to show everyone who you are."

"…Heh. Oh I get it. It's another one of Puppetmon's tricks isn't it?" Matt said, remembering the time where he was tricked to turn against the Digidestined. "Well guess what? I'm not falling for that same trick again!"

"Oh? So you aren't accepting the truth of yourself?"

"Huh?"

"It's the truth, right? You're jealous of Tai because he's the leader. In fact, you're jealous of him right now because he has a Persona, and you don't!"

"Is that…?" Tai wondered, thinking that might be true about Matt.

"Wh- Tai! Of course not!" Matt exclaimed. "Okay, you, me, whatever! You're starting to get on my nerves, so get out of here, now!"

"M…Matt?" T.K. said, starting to get scared.

"Friends, brothers, who needs them? As long as you have yourself, you will top those things! After all…You are me…"

"N-No! That's not true!" Matt yelled, finally snapping.

"Your jealousy is showing. C'mon, that's true, right? You're jealous of Tai, because he's the dumb big shot that has to have a Persona, and to have his Digimon buddy back with him." Matt looks at his other self furiously. "What's wrong? Why are you getting mad at yourself? That's the truth, right? That's the truth about us, isn't it?"

"No! Y-You're lying, you big faker! Wh-What are you!? Who are you!?"

"Heheheh. I told you. I am you. Your shadow! There's nothing that I don't know about you…"

"No! That can't be true! You're nothing like me! I don't even know you! You can't be me at all!"

Suddenly, the shadow begins laughing, with an ominous smoke behind him.

"Say that again?" The shadow teased.

"Y-You're not me."

"Y-Yeah! That's right!" T.K. exclaimed, jumping in to defend his brother. "I know my big brother more than you do! And I can tell that he doesn't act like that at all!"

"That's right! Ahahahaha! I'm not this son of a bitch anymore! I'm me! My own body, my own personality! I'm the one who will listen to myself here, not you! You just outright said that!"

"Why does that matter!?" Matt exclaimed. "Just get out of here!

"There's one problem with that." The shadow Matt then starts glowing, and his eerie yellow eyes starts glowing. "There can't be two Matts in either world. One has to die, and the one that will die, is this one!"

 _ ***I'LL FACE MYSELF (BATTLE)**_ _ *****_

The Matt then glowed even more, and looked like he was transmogrifying. He was turning into a big shadow monster, bigger than the house. He destroyed the roof, as the others were running away from the growing monster.

"Wh-What's going on!?" Tai exclaimed.

"D-Did you say something to make him angry?" T.K. said.

"All I said was that he wasn't me." Matt said.

"Well, he's sure taking that pretty well!" Tai said.

"I am a shadow!" The monstrous Shadow Matt said. "The true self!" The shadow has monstrous fur on him, with a head of a beast. He also has sharp claws, and sharp teeth, as well as sharp thorns across his arms and legs. He also has a blue cape, with an inverted version of the symbol of Friendship on it. "I'll crush anything that dares to get in my way, starting with you!"

The monstrous Shadow Matt then slams both of his hands onto the ground, and ice shot out of the ground. Matt covered T.K., from the impending attack. Everyone, except T.K. got hit from the sharp ice attack, and was sent flying back. Matt got knocked out as a result, however Tai and Kari were still conscious, though Tai had toppled onto the ground.

"How long are you going to keep this up, friend?" The Shadow Matt said.

"Y-You're no friend of ours!" Kari yelled.

"Ow…how come we're not dead from that attack?" Tai groaned, as he got up.

"It's your Persona power, probably." Teddie said. "It must be raising your strength to stronger levels."

"Our Personas protected us?" Kari said.

"M-Matt's out!" T.K. exclaimed, shaking his brother.

"Keep an eye on him, T.K." Tai said, as the two faced the shadow Matt. Their respective cards floated down to them. _"PERSONA!"_ Tai scrunched his hand onto the card, and like from before, it shattered into pieces. Out of blue flames rising from behind Tai, Alke appears. He then gets out the driver he got from Matt. "Well, hopefully this won't be a waste of my time."

" _PERSONA!"_ Kari then summoned hers, by pressing her card against her chest. Like with Tai, Phanes appears behind Kari. She then gets out the toy bow from before.

Never seeing a Persona summoning process from before, T.K. was amazed.

"Be careful, Tai." Teddie warned. "This guy uses ice attacks, and judging from your Persona type, it looks like you're weak to that attack! That's why you toppled from before!"

"Okay, thanks for the heads up, Teddie." Tai said.

Shadow Matt raises his monstrous hand, and attempts to slam it down on Tai, however, he dodges, and hits it with his club. It looked like that actually hurt the shadow a bit. Like Teddie had said from before, their Persona power must have not only powered their defense, it must have powered their offense. Usually, when Tai tries attacking a Digimon himself back in the Digital World, it wouldn't go so good.

"Alright, that looked like it did something!" T.K. exclaimed.

"Keep it up you guys!" Teddie exclaimed.

"Come on, Phanes!" Kari exclaimed. "Go!" Phanes flies forward, and shoots an arrow at the shadow. It pierced through him, and he collapses on the ground.

"Alright! One more, Kari!"

"Got it!" She then aims her bow, and fires. As if it was a real arrow, it stabs into the Shadow Matt.

"What a freaking pain…" The shadow grumbled getting up. "Alright, take this!" Both of his hands slam onto the ground again, and shot ice towards the two. They both guarded, and surprisingly, that blocked some of the damage.

"Not gonna work this time!" Tai exclaimed. Because he was guarding, his ice weakness didn't topple him this time.

"These new Persona powers are awesome!" Kari exclaimed.

"Alright, Alke!" Tai exclaimed. "Go get him!"

"Wait, me first! Phanes!" Kari ordered Phanes to attack first, and she shot Shadow Matt with a piercing arrow, which seemed to be his weakness.

"Alke!" Tai yelled, and Alke responded by blasting the shadow with fire, finishing it off.

 _ ***ENDS**_ _ *****_

The shadow collapses onto the ground

"Whew…Did we get it?" Tai said, wiping sweat off of his forehead.

"Looks like it." Kari said. "Is Matt okay, T.K.?"

"I-I think so." T.K. responded. "Joe would probably know what to do here."

"We should find him and the others." Tai said. "Teddie, can you watch T.K. and Matt for us while we go looking for the others?"

"Oh, you mean next to the giant shadow that may or may not be dead?" Teddie said, expressing concerns.

"Okay, okay, we'll move him into another building, then we'll go looking for the others."

They all then moved unconscious Matt into a building, just in case the shadow comes back to hunt for them again. There is a backdoor, so if needed, they can rush out of there. Tai and Kari then go off back to the shopping district to look for the others.

* * *

When they got back to the crossroads again, they heard some crashing off to the other direction to where Yu's group went.

"What was that?" Kari said.

"Sounds like fighting!" Tai exclaimed.

 _ ***I'LL FACE MYSELF (BATTLE)**_ _ *****_

The two then rushed towards the source of the commotion. It sounded like it was coming from inside a building. They got to where it was the loudest, and it was a convenience store. It was a small store, which doesn't look like it can compete to the likes of Junes. The two rushed inside the building to where the fighting is.

When they got inside, they found it was much larger than what it looked like from the outside. They then see Yu, with his Persona, fending off against another giant shadow. Yu's Persona looks like he was wearing something similar to his Yasogami High school uniform, with a mask covering his face. He was equipped with a lance. The shadow he was fighting had a camouflage body, with webbed hands, like a frog, and stubby legs. The creature was on his fours, and has a creepy smile, with piercing eyes. There was also some sort of rider literally attached to the top of the creature, who has a red scarf, as well as yellow gloves.

"Oh, well I see that you guys are having trouble as well." Tai said.

"Tai, Kari! Oh thank goodness you two are here!" Sora exclaimed.

"This is amazing!" Izzy exclaimed, paying attention to Yu, and his Persona. "A monster just came out of you! I have never seen anything like it!"

"Uh, less swooning, and more fighting!" Mimi exclaimed. "Protect us guys!"

"Izanagi!" Yu exclaimed. Izanagi slashes at the monstrous Shadow Yosuke, and blasted him away. He landed onto his fours, and then tries to go after them.

"Persona!" Tai and Kari exclaimed, and they summoned Alke and Phanes to the fight. The two of them held back the rampaging shadow.

"He's not me…He's nothing like me…" Yosuke mumbled, as they were fighting.

"Strange. Once Yosuke started saying that, his shadow started raging." Izzy said.

"Hey, that happened to Matt." Kari said.

"You mean, there was two of him?" Yu said.

"Yeah, but we beat his shadow."

"You pricks, just die already!" Yosuke's monstrous shadow yelled.

He threw out his arms to attack them. He managed to hit Yosuke, and he collided against Yu and Tai. They both were sent flying back, and landed roughly on the ground.

"Ngh, this is ridiculous." Tai groaned, getting up. "We're getting nowhere with this thing."

"Phanes!" Kari exclaimed. Phanes then drew back her bow, and shot an arrow towards Shadow Yosuke, and it did impale him, however it still didn't do much. "No way! Not even that did anything!"

"Heh, is that it? Boring!" Shadow Yosuke taunted. "Now die!" Shadow Yosuke leapt up into the air, and was going to fall on top of the girl, in which she was frozen in terror. She couldn't bring herself to move at all, because she was too scared. Just as the monster was about to crush her to death however, something rushed in, and pounded Shadow Yosuke back.

"Huh? What was that?" Kari said.

The figure seemed to be another monster, which just landed right in front of her.

"Aw come on!" Tai exclaimed. "Not another shadow!"

"He isn't a shadow." A voice said. Three people then walked into the battlefield. "He's my Persona!" The three people, who just walked in, were Matt, T.K., and Teddie. Matt has one of Teddie's glasses on him. It was blue, with SMPTE color bars on the side of them, just like Tai's and Kari's. "Yamainu!"

Matt's new Persona raises a sharp dagger, and stabs right into Shadow Yosuke. Matt's Persona looks similar to his shadow, with sharp teeth, however, there was also a harmonica hanging from his neck. Yamainu has the head of a wolf, blue fur as sharp as blades of grass, along with leather sleeves. On those leather gloves is the symbol for the Crest of Friendship. There was also three big thorns on its chest.

"Matt got a Persona!?" Tai exclaimed.

"We'll tell you about it later!" T.K. said.

"You little shits are becoming a fricking pain in the ass!" Shadow Yosuke yelled.

"Hey, we appreciate it if you don't swear like that at us!" Mimi scolded.

"I don't care!"

Shadow Yosuke then proceeds to attack again.

"Izanagi!" Yu exclaimed, as he crushes a similar looking card, like Tai's and Kari's. His has the picture of a boy, carrying a stick with a bag hanging on it, and accompanying him is his dog. There's also the number "0" on the bottom of the card. Izanagi dashes forward, and slices the shadow back, and away from Yosuke and the others. All the while however, black spots starts to form and move from the walls, slowly.

"Oh no! The shadows!" Teddie exclaimed.

"What? What's wrong Teddie?" Kari said.

"If you guys don't stop Yosuke's Shadow quick, we'll be surrounded by shadows, and things are going to get grizzly real quick!"

"That's not gonna happen!" Tai yelled. He then faces Matt, confidently. "Hey, ready to do this?"

"As always." He nods. "Yamainu!"

"Alke!"

The two Personas flew forward, and unleashed a barrage of Fire and Ice upon the shadow. Yosuke's Shadow did take quite a beating from that, however, he's still up and running.

"Ha! That's all you got?" He taunted. "You know it's pretty ironic that I have the power to kill you all, when my other self can't do a damn thing at all!"

"Don't let him get to you!" Yu exclaimed.

"Don't listen to him, Yosuke!" Matt yelled. "You need to accept him!"

"Accept…?" Yosuke mumbled. "He's…He's nothing like me…"

"Yosuke, that thing came from you." Teddie said. "It's going berserk because you're rejecting him."

"He's not me! He's not me!"

"Yeah! You heard what he said!" Shadow Yosuke yelled. "I'm not him! Now, time to dispose of the trash!"

"Izanagi!" Yu yelled, as he ran forward. For some reason, he punched Yosuke, the same time as Izanagi punched Shadow Yosuke, and they both were sent flying back.

 _ ***ENDS***_

"OW! What was that for!?" Yosuke yelled, rubbing his cheek.

"Oops. Wrong guy." Yu said, with the others resisting to laugh.

"Dude, what!? What do you mean wrong guy!?"

"You're still the same guy, right?" Matt said. "You know, being someone funny."

"Funny? But, we barely know…" Yosuke started, before trailing off. He then acknowledges something, and then smiles. "Yeah…You're right." Matt helped Yosuke up on to his feet.

"I had to face that." Matt said. "That's how I got Yamainu. I had to face my other self. I yelled at him, saying he was lying, but, he was just opening my eyes and telling me who I really am. When you get down to it, that is me…"

"So…" Tai started, walking up to Matt. "You were jealous of me? And you really thought you didn't need us?"

"It's something that I didn't want to admit, but, yeah. When you got your Persona, I was jealous, since I didn't. You always do get the insane stuff first, and it was different this time, since I didn't have Gabumon by my side. Deep down, I also thought that I can do better without everyone's help. I was more or less a huge selfish brat who thinks he's tough because their parents say they're tough. This was the second time that I faced that truth, remember? Cherrymon and Puppetmon tried tricking me into turning against you by telling me what I thought were lies, but really, they were telling me the truth about myself, and I faced it the hard way when my own shadow confronted me. But now, I'm changing. I'm changing for the better. I accepted him as my other self, and now we're going to change. We can't just sit around, waiting for you guys to do all the work, you know?"

Tai smirked, and shook his friend's hand.

"And even when you faced the truth, you're still my teammate, and my friend." Tai said.

"The same friend…" Yosuke said.

"So, what exactly did your shadow told you?"

"He said that he was trying to fit in." Izzy said.

"Fit in?" T.K. said.

"I wanted to desperately try to fit in, and think things are cool, but I was being a pain to everyone. Even I think that I'm a pain in the ass sometimes…" Yosuke said. He then brought out a ticket for a show.

"What's that?"

"This is a ticket to a show I wanted me and Saki-Senpai to go to…No matter what, even if I am a pain in the ass, my feelings for Saki-Senpai are real." He then faced the fighting shadows. "So that's a part of me, huh? I guess if I want to be honest, all of this is me."

As he said that, Shadow Yosuke starts yelling, as if he was struck with something hard. Something strong other than the Persona attacks.

"Gah! You little…! Die already!" Shadow Yosuke yelled.

"Look! He's weak!" Izzy yelled. "Now's your chance!"

"Kari! I need your help!" Yu exclaimed.

"Okay!" She answered.

"Izanagi!" Yu yelled.

"Phanes!" Kari yelled.

Their Personas then summoned lightning, and it shot down Shadow Yosuke, before he was able to do anything. He was toppled onto the ground, and there was static showing on his body, as he was groaning.

"All right." Yu said. "Now's the time! Time for an All-Out Attack!"

"Okay!" Tai exclaimed.

"Got it!" Kari exclaimed.

"Roger that!" Matt exclaimed.

The four of them all ran forward, and began beating the shadow up in a big ball of violence.

"I was so ashamed by what that guy, or me, or whatever was saying that I didn't want to admit those things." Yosuke said, as the Persona users continued beating the shadow up.

"Gah! Stop it! Stop it!" The shadow was yelling, as Yosuke was facing the truth of his inner self.

"Dammit…It really hurts to face yourself…"

"GAH!"

"Oops! Didn't mean to hit that!" Kari yelled from the dust cloud.

"Remember what Matt said." Sora said. "You're still yourself no matter what."

"Yeah…" Yosuke said, as he walked up to the big ball of violence. "Okay, that's enough. He's had enough."

The four inside quickly responded, and stopped beating the shadow up, who degraded back to looking exactly like Yosuke again. They all stepped back, as Yosuke walks up to his shadow self, who was lying in pain on the ground.

"I knew you weren't lying…" Yosuke said, holding his other self's shoulder. "When it comes down to it, you're me, and I'm you…" His shadow looks up to him, and closed his eyes, and smiled, gladly being accepted by Yosuke.

He then shone a blue aura, and transformed into something similar to his monstrous form, only now he was a Persona; Yosuke's Persona. The Persona has a more humanoid form, with a white outfit, with camo gloves, and a red vest. The creepy toothy smile, and piercing eyes were also on this Persona, only they weren't as big as the Shadow form. He then turned into a card that floated down to Yosuke. His card had the picture of eyes looking at a flame that was in its hands, with the roman numeral 1 (I) on the bottom of the card.

"I-Is this my…" Yosuke said, holding the card.

"Your Persona." Yu said, as the card disappears inside of Yosuke.

"Narukami…Everyone…" Yosuke said, facing everyone. "Thanks a lot. You guys were a huge help."

"No mention it." Matt said. "That's what friends are for."

* * *

Back outside, Chie was sitting down on her knees, looking at a rope for some reason. She then heard thuds, and saw the whole entire group, save for Teddie of course, come out of the TV.

"Ugh…my ass…" Yosuke groaned, as they got up.

"You…" Chie said, surprised, grabbing everyone's attention. "You Made It Baaack!" She then broke into tears.

"Wh…What's wrong with you?" Yosuke said, as they went up. Chie then threw the rope at Yosuke. "O-Ow!"

"The nerve of you guys!" Chie yelled, furious. "You're such morons! I can't believe this! You guys suck!"

"Wait, are you talking to them or…" Tai started, pointing to him, and then the teens.

"The rope got cut off…I had no idea what to do…I was so worried…I mean scared stiff, dammit! I hate you both!" Chie then ran from them.

"I…think that might have been kinda our fault…" Yosuke said.

"We should apologize to her tomorrow…" Yu said.

"I'm tired…" Kari moaned, sitting on the ground.

"Those Personas really take the energy out of us…" Tai said.

* * *

Everyone was walking outside, with umbrellas covering their heads from the rain.

"Ugh, I'm gonna soak into the shower once we get back home…" Yosuke said, as they walked on the flood plains.

"GYAH! I completely forgot something!" Kari yelled.

"Wha-What!?" Yosuke exclaimed, startled by her yelling. "What's wrong Kari-chan?"

"I Forgot Koromon and Salamon!"

"Oh Shoot! I forgot about them too!" Tai exclaimed. "We need to go back!"

"No worries, Tai." A voice said from Tai's backpack. Emerging from it, was an exhausted Koromon. "We're here."

"Oh, phew. Where the heck were you guys? And why are you all exhausted?"

"Wha…What the…" Yosuke stuttered, as the two teens have never seen a Digimon before. "What the heck is that thing?"

"Huh?" Koromon said, looking at Yosuke and Yu.

"What is it? Some sort of talking basketball?"

"Hey! Who're you calling a basketball!?" Koromon yelled, offended.

"These were the Digimon we were talking to you about." Kari said, holding Salamon.

"So, you were telling the truth about the Digimon?" Yu said.

"Mm-hmm!"

"So, does that mean, you guys are truly heroes?"

"Of course!"

"Look, I'd love to believe you guys," Yosuke started, touching Koromon out of curiosity, "but, I'm still not buying the whole Digidestined thing."

"Well, you saw shadows and Personas." Mimi said. "I don't know why you would think this is unbelievable."

"Still, you guys are just kids. How could you guys fight without these Persona things?"

"Look, we'll tell you tomorrow." Tai said.

They then walked some more, making a bit of small talk with each other. Yosuke then spoke up.

"Man, I can't get my mind off of that place." He said, talking about the TV World. "Who would put Saki and Ms. Yamano in there? That place is dangerous."

"Well, we're dealing with a serial killer, remember?" Tai said.

"Yeah."

"Well, we need to find this killer's pattern fast, otherwise more people are going to get killed when the fog appears." Izzy said.

"I think we got that figured out." Yu said. "Remember who appeared on the Midnight Channel? We think that was Saki."

"Yeah. That did look like her." Yosuke said. The kids don't know what Saki looked like, but they take the teens' word for it.

"You know, remember what we heard first about the Midnight Channel back at school?" Mimi said. "The kids said that they saw Ms. Yamano on the TV. And that was before the day she died."

"So, do you mean, whoever appears on that Midnight Channel, would be the killer's next victim?" Kari said.

"Yep." Yu said. "It seems like it's no coincidence that when Saki appeared on the channel, she died the next day."

* * *

They also recall what Teddie said to them before they returned to the real world.

"You know what I think? I think when those people are thrown into this world, their own shadows attack and kills them, just like what happened to Yosuke here."

"And it looked like more shadows were gathering up around us." Tai said. "You said that, right?"

"Yep. The strong-willed shadow draws the other shadows to it, and the big mass of shadows overwhelm, and kills the host."

* * *

Yosuke then stops dead in his tracks, and faced the others.

"We can't just ignore this." Yosuke said. "We have to find out who's killing these people."

"We promised that we would." Yu said.

"You guys did anyway…You know, for some reason, with you all around, I feel like we can catch this guy together."

"And with our Persona powers, we can make sure no one else gets killed." Kari said.

"Yep. So, what do you say? You're all in for real? Cause, I'll be counting on you guys."

Everyone nodded, and they all agree to team up together, and solve the mystery in the fog.

The rain then subsides, and they see the sunset, through the cracks of the clouds. They all folded their umbrellas, and all waved to each other, and they left to their homes. They definitely need the rest. They were all going to go after a potential serial killer, and they need the energy, for their investigation, and for their power to summon their Persona.

"Hey Tai." Koromon spoke up, as they walked. "You keep on saying this thing about a Persona."

"Yeah. They're these things that we call by smashing this card that falls in our hand." Kari said.

"That, really sounds familiar…" Salamon said.

"Really? How so? Did you meet someone who can use a Persona?"

"I dunno."

"Hmm…" Tai was figuring out something about this. They claim they don't remember anything after they went into the TV, and they think they heard the term Persona, as well as the name Alke and Phanes.

"What's wrong, Tai?" Koromon said.

"Nah, something that was on my mind. Don't worry about it. Let's get back home and rest. We have a big day tomorrow."

The four then got back home, and Tai opens the door, and shouts that they're back home.

 _ **TO BE CONTINUED**_


	5. Chapter 5: We Are Friends, Aren't We?

_CHAPTER 5:_  
We Are Friends, Aren't We?

 _ **Persona series © ATLUS  
Digimon Adventure © Toei Animation**_

A jolt from underneath had abruptly waken up Tai. He held his head, groaning, and looked towards the front of him. There were two people in front of him, and he recognizes this place the day that they entered Inaba. This was the Velvet Room. The long-nosed man, Igor and the woman wearing blue, Margaret was looking like they were waiting for him.

"Huh? Wait, it's you…" Tai said, rubbing his eyes. "H-How did you get me into this limo again?"

"It would seem that you and your sister are starting to awaken your powers." Margaret said, ignoring Taichi's question.

"Awaken our powers?" Tai then hears moaning next to him, and he turns his head to look beside him. To his surprise, he sees Kari next to him, and she was slowly waking up. "Wha? Kari? You got pulled into this place too?" His little sister's eyes fluttered open, as she looks at him.

"Mmm…Tai?" Once her vision became clear, she sees that they were in unfamiliar territory. She looked at their surroundings, and sees that they were in a limousine. "W-Where are we? Did mom and dad got us a Limo to ride?"

"I'm not entirely sure myself, sis…"

"Welcome to the Velvet Room…" Igor said.

"The Velvet Room?" Kari said. "That's a funny name for a limo."

"I see that the events of the catastrophe are now unfolding."

"The catastrophe?"

"The coming days will be challenging, and it is our duty to guide you two on your journey."

"Guide us?"

"What do you mean, guide?" Tai said.

"All will be revealed in due time." Igor said.

"Um, Tai? Do you know these guys?" Kari asked. "It looks like you do."

"Barely." Tai said. "They're Igor and Margaret and…" As Tai was naming the two people in the room, he realizes that there is a third. It was a younger looking girl; most likely a teen, with a blue hat, and what looks like a weird version of a school uniform. She had a white shirt, with a black tie, a plaid skirt, and a blue shoulder bag; black and white striped socks, and black boots. "Huh? Who's that? I haven't seen her before."

"I was about to introduce her." Margaret said. "She is a new resident of the Velvet Room, who will also be helping you on your journey." Expecting a greeting, Margaret went silent, but all that the girl did was stare at them. "…Marie?"

"Yeah, I can hear. Nice to meet you." The girl, named Marie said.

"Uh…nice to meet you too." Kari said, awkwardly, not knowing exactly what to say to this unfriendly looking girl.

"Excuse her." Margaret said. "This is Marie. Her soul is still very young and-"

"Shut up." Marie said abruptly. "Don't tell them anymore about me than you need to."

"As you can see, she may be brusque at times, but please only understand that she is only an apprentice. And please forgive her for her impoliteness."

"Yyeah, sure." Tai said, not really looking forward to working with a girl who will be unfriendly to them most of the time.

"I will now give you this." Igor said, as two brass skeleton keys materialized onto the table. "This is the Contractor's Key."

"From this night on, you will now be considered our guests of the Velvet Room." Margaret said.

"Us?" Tai said.

"But, what's so special about us?" Kari said. "Shouldn't the other Digidestined be in here as well?"

"There is a special power deep within the trait of Courage and Light that you two possess."

"Really?" Tai said.

"It is called the power of the Wild Card."

"The Wild Card?"

"What's that?" Kari said.

"A power that is like no other. It is only thought that the power to possess the Wild Card is exclusive to those who have the Fool arcana."

"The Fool, what?" Tai said.

"Arcana. It is the representation of one's personality." The Tarot Cards that Tai and Kari smash in order to summon their Persona floats down towards eye level.

"Personality?"

"Oh, I get it." Kari said. "Personality. Persona. It makes more sense now!"

"It is?"

"Uh, I think."

"You two indeed have the power of the Wild Card, however, unlike previous users, yours is unique." Margaret said. "Yours isn't tied to a specific arcana, and your Wild Card abilities are split between you two. Though one of the abilities that one of you possess is different than the abilities of the normal Wild Card ability."

"Um, what are they, really?" Tai said.

"That is something you will find out soon. For now, your base Persona abilities are starting to awaken."

"The next we meet, it will be when you truly awaken your powers as a Digidestined Persona user." Igor said.

"A Digidestined Persona user?" Kari said.

"Until then, it is time for you to return."

* * *

 _ **4/16 Sunday  
Early Morning  
Sunny**_

After taking that limo ride in dream land, Tai wakes up in his bunk bed, with his head spinning a little. Groaning, he sits up, and looks at the palm of his hand.

"A Digidestined, Persona user?" Tai said.

"Hey Tai." Kari said, peaking over her bed. "Did you have the same dream?"

"With that man with the long nose, and those two other girls? Yeah."

"Uh, what exactly did you two dream last night?" Koromon said, nudging Tai.

"Something about being a Digidestined Persona user, and something about the power of the Wild Card."

"Sounds like a whacky dream." Salamon said.

"Yeah…" Kari said, petting Salamon.

"Well, today's an off day, thank goodness." Tai said. "Hope nothing goes wrong today…" Tai then jumped off of his bed, and went for the closet. "I'm hanging out with Matt today. Think I'll see how he's doing with his Persona ability, and all that. Wanna come?"

"Nah, I'm going to visit someone today."

"Oh, okay. Oh but don't show Salamon to them. We don't want to cause any more ruckuses in this town."

"I won't. I promise."

* * *

 _ **Morning**_

Chie was frantically running around Inaba. She was searching for someone, clearly. She took turns, and asked people where the person she was looking for is. She then stopped in front of Tai and Matt, talking to each other.

"Oh, Tai, Matt!" Chie said.

"Hey Chie, what's-" Tai started.

"Have you seen where Yukiko-san is?"

"Uh, who?" Matt said.

"Was she the girl with the red sweatshirt walking with you on our first day at school?" Tai said.

"Yeah, that's her." Chie said.

"Why are you looking at her?"

"I thought I saw her on the Midnight Channel last night."

"Y-You did!?"

"So does that mean that she's the next target?" Matt said.

"Wait, did you say you couldn't find her anywhere?"

"No! I tried messaging her, but she wasn't there!" Chie exclaimed.

"You don't think she's…"

"If she was in the TV World, she probably would be okay…probably…" Matt said. "Remember? It needs to be a foggy day for the shadows to go berserk."

"Yeah, that's true."

"Okay guys, enough!" Chie exclaimed. "She's okay…She has to be…She's probably super duper busy right now."

"Hey, yeah, you said that Yukiko-san's family runs an inn, right?"

"It would make sense that the inn would be overflowed right now." Matt said.

"Oh, yeah, maybe!" Chie exclaimed. "I'll swing by and check!"

"But, isn't her inn flooded by now? Wouldn't it be hard to find her in a place like that?" Tai said, sweatdropping.

Chie was about to leave to go check at the Amagi inn, but her cellphone rang. She then stopped, and answered her cell phone.

"Hello?" She said into the phone. "…*Gasp* Yukiko! Thank God! You're okay!...Yeah, mmhmm! I see…Nah, I'm fine. I'll text you later, okay?" She then closed the phone. "All's good. A bunch of people showed up to the inn without a reservation, and they were really busy."

"So, if Yukiko didn't appear on the TV last night…" Tai started.

"Then who was on the Midnight Channel?" Matt finished.

"I dunno, but if Yukiko's okay, then it doesn't matter." Chie said.

"Oh, by the way, Yu and Yosuke say they're sorry for worrying you."

"Nah, it's okay. They apologized to me earlier today."

"Oh, good."

"Yeah, they're repaying me by ordering me 10 beefsteaks, and a bowl of nikudon."

"Er…good…" Tai said, sweatdropping.

"See you later Kamiya and Ishida!" Chie said, heading off.

"10 beefsteaks?" Matt said, when Chie made a turn. Tai shrugged. "So, what should we do today?"

"I don't know." Tai said. "Maybe we should speak to Teddie to see if there's anyone in that TV world."

"Alright. Is Kari coming?"

"Kari's visiting a friend, she said."

"Who?"

* * *

Yu walks down from his bedroom from upstairs, to see his cousin, and Kari in the living room, oddly.

"Oh, hey Yu!" Kari said.

"Uh, morning." Yu said.

"Don't mind me, I'm just visiting."

"Heh, so this she's the new friend you were talking about." Yu said, looking at Nanako.

"Mmhmm." Nanako nods.

"So, where's your dad?"

"He's gone already. He said he'd be back late."

"You said your dad is a detective, right?" Kari said.

"Yeah."

"He must be busy with all these cases around Inaba."

"Yeah…" Nanako then noticed that Yu's all dressed up for the day. "Oh, are you going?"

"Yeah I am, but I'm just hanging out with my friends." Yu said, awkwardly.

"Don't worry. I'm okay. Besides, Kari-san's here."

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Kari said. "But, I'm only visiting for a while. Are you sure you're okay by yourself?"

"Don't worry about me. I can hold down the fort. Go have some fun."

"Huh? Er, okay." Yu said.

* * *

 _ **Daytime**_

At the Junes Department store.

Tai, Matt and Sora were looking at the same TV that they use to get into the TV world. Matt and Sora was looking around them, looking at the different people in the store today. There was quite the crowd.

"Sheesh, it looks crowded today." Sora said.

"Okay, we'll cover Tai." Matt said. "Tai, try grabbing Teddie's attention."

Tai then puts his hand into the TV, and tried signaling Teddie. A few seconds later, he jerked his hand out of the TV in pain.

"OW!" He yelped in pain.

"Hey, what happened?"

"Something bit me…" Tai said, looking at his hand. There were red bite marks on his hand.

"Whoa, and it left teeth marks too!" Sora said. "Are you okay?"

"…I might be dying…"

"No, you're not…" Sora groaned.

"Is that Sora I hear?" Teddie's voice came from the TV. "What's up? Is this some sort of new game?"

"Hey, Teddie." Matt whispered into the TV. "Does it seem like anyone's in there?"

"Who's anyone? No, it's just me. I'm all by my bearsome. You could say I'm a beary lonely boy!"

"Okay, we get it." Sora whispered. "Are you sure no one's in there with you?"

"No, of course not! I'm not telling tales! My bear snout is working bearifically today."

"Okay, so no one's in the TV today, but I definitely think I saw someone's face last night on the Midnight Channel."

"What should we do?" Matt said.

"Well, it's going to rain again tonight." Tai said. "I say we should check it out again."

"Alright." Sora said. "Thanks Teddie. We'll see you again."

* * *

They then were walking out of the department store.

"So, we're checking out the Midnight Channel tonight?" Sora said.

"Yeah. We should see if Yu's around here." Tai said. "We should remind him and the others to check out the channel tonight."

"Actually, Chie and I exchanged numbers the other day. I could call her, and have her tell me Yu and Yosuke's numbers."

"Ah, good idea. Okay, so once the channel stops broadcasting, we should call each other."

"Okay." Matt nods.

"So, we're gonna be up until Midnight tonight?" A voice came from Matt's bag. "I hope I don't fall asleep and miss it."

"Huh? What was that?" Tai said.

"It's me, Tai!" Something then stuck out of Matt's bag that shocked Tai and Sora.

"Whoa, what!? Tsudomon?"

"How's it going, guys?"

"Yeah, he just fell out of my TV last night." Matt said. "Weird, huh?"

"It looks like our Digimon are starting to find a way to get back with us." Sora said.

"But how are they traveling from the Digital World to our world?" Tai said. "I thought Gennai said the portal closed."

"Honestly, I don't remember myself." Tsudomon said. "All I remember is a flash of light, and bam, here I am. I also had this crazy nightmare where I thought I was attacking you, Kari and Matt."

"Hm, just like Koromon and Salamon."

"Does this mean anything, Tai?" Sora said.

"I don't know, but if any of the rest of the Digimon are here in the real world, we should keep an eye out for them. We don't want people to think they're balls, or get scared of them."

"Okay. I'll keep an eye out for them…"

"Yeah, me too." Matt said.

* * *

 _ **Late Night**_

The rain has just started that night, and most of the people in the house were asleep, except for Tai and Kari, and their Digimon, who were fighting to stay awake. Tai just turned off the TV when it was getting close to Midnight.

"*Yawn* What time is it?" Koromon said, drowsy.

"Almost midnight." Tai said.

"So, are we going to see someone else on the Midnight Channel?" Kari said.

"Yeah. We should."

The clock turns to Midnight, and a second later, the TV came on.

"Wah! It's a ghost TV!" Koromon exclaimed.

"Shh! You're going to wake up mom and dad!" Tai said, covering Koromon's mouth. "Let's watch it…"

The channel was showing what seems to be a castle that's hanging out in the background. The red and black sky was present in the channel, just like in the TV World. Suddenly, someone pops onto the screen, making kissing noises, before noticing the camera.

[Oh, hello there!] She said. Tai and Kari recognize who this girl was.

"Ah! No way!" Kari said.

[My name is Yukiko Amagi, and today I'm going to hunt me down a STUD MUFFIN! Are you ready? Come on saddle up, and reign in your stud! It's Princess Yukiko's hunt for her prince charming!] The text, "Princess Yukiko's Hunt for Her Prince on a White Horse" appears on screen. Yukiko on screen seems to be wearing a pretty tight dress, with detached sleeves on it, and a tiara.

The four were shocked in what they were watching.

"…Is this what humans do for entertainment…?" Salamon said, shocked.

"Saddle on a white horse…?" Koromon said.

"Just hush up and listen." Tai said.

[As you can see, I came prepared! My lacy unmentionables, they're ready to go! And so it my heart! See, I'm going out there to tame me the best studs there are! Well, here I go!] Yukiko then starts running into the castle, while the camera pans upwards. The TV then turns off. Moments later, Tai's phone went off, and he picked it up. Yosuke was on the other side.

"Hey, did you just see that!?" Yosuke exclaimed.

"Uh, Yosuke, what did she mean when she said-"

"Don't ask that! Seriously, this stuff isn't something you should be learning at your age…"

"Well sorry, but-"

"Never mind that. Listen, do you think she looked like she was on some sort of low budget TV show."

"Kinda. If it was a show she's staring in, it's one weird one. And a bad one at that. So, do you think that you should call the others?"

"I already contacted Narukami. Sora-chan also called me, and she said that Mimi-chan called her and…Bah, you get the point. Anyway, tomorrow's a Monday. Let's meet after school tomorrow."

"Okay. Deal."

"Alright." Yosuke then hung up, and Tai closed his phone.

"Uh, Tai?" Kari nudged her brother. "Do all girls do that?"

"Huh?"

"You know, doing that hunt for a hot stud-"

"I don't know. I don't know all this teen stuff…And please don't ask mom and dad about that…"

"Okay." She simply said.

* * *

 _ **4/17 Monday  
Early Morning  
Sunny**_

While Tai and Kari were headed to school, when they got to the crossroad, they heard a big crash that came from the pathway to the High School. Wondering if it's another case of the mysterious murders (Even though the last foggy day was directed towards Konishi's death), they ran up ahead towards the path, and they saw a High Schooler who appeared to be trapped inside of a trash can. It looked like they were riding their bike, and they crashed and got trapped in the trash can.

"S-Somebody, help!" They yelled as they were rolling around. Tai and Kari recognized that voice, and they awkwardly looked at each other as they realized that. Kari got a grip on the teen's legs, and Tai got a grip on the trash can, and they were able to get Yosuke out of the trash.

"Agh! Hey, thanks you two…" Yosuke sighed, as he got up.

"No problem." Kari said.

"But, uh, how, exactly did you get yourself-" Tai started.

"Yeah, it's been happening a lot lately…" Yosuke interrupted him. "Can't stop the speed demon, I'd say."

"Uh, right…Anyway, we'll see each other after school?"

"Yup. I'm getting a little bit worried. I haven't heard from Chie or Yukiko."

"Do you think that…" Kari said.

"Well, we'll find out after school. Until then, don't go doing anything rash, okay?"

"We won't."

"Okay. Be careful you guys." Yosuke then took off towards his High School on his bike, while Tai and Kari went to their Elementary school, with their thoughts towards Yukiko and the Midnight Channel.

* * *

 _ **After School**_

The Digidestined were all conversing what they all saw last night.

"So, you guys saw her too?" Tai said.

"I couldn't." T.K. said. "Mom caught me before I was going to watch the TV."

"Be thankful she caught you before it turned on." Matt said.

"Was it really that bad?"

"Yosuke told me to not talk about it." Tai said.

"Hey." Someone has just walked up to them. He was wearing a soccer uniform from the looks, and he looks to be a little older than Tai. "Aren't you the new guys in the school?"

"Uh, yeah, that's us."

"Who're you?" Sora said.

"I play in this school's soccer team, if you haven't noticed."

"Oh yeah!" Tai said. "I meant to ask about that."

"Heh, you're a big soccer enthusiast, huh?"

"Enthusiast? I play soccer! I'm a pretty good player."

"Yeah, I'm a good player too." Sora said.

"You might want to ask someone who knows about the girl's soccer team, cause I wouldn't know." The player said. "Anyway, you signing up?"

"Yeah, of course I am!" Tai said. "When's the next meeting?"

"We'll start meeting next Tuesday. Hope to see you there."

"Yeah, see you!" The player then walks away.

"Right, after School activities started opening up the other day." Joe said.

"Oh, right." Kari said. "I joined the dance club that day. I've heard about it last week. I wanted to know more about it."

"Yeah, and I heard the band club is looking for some members." Matt said. "I might end up joining them too."

"We can worry about that later." Tai said. "We should find out from Yu and the others if Yukiko's around today. You know, because of the midnight channel."

"I won't be able to join up with you guys though." Joe said. "I got some work to do."

"Joe, come on. You can work afterwards."

"I made some friends with a couple of guys." T.K. said. "They invited me to play basketball with them."

"Okay, so it's-"

"I just joined the Gardening Club, and they meet after school on Mondays and Fridays." Mimi said. "I can't be there with you guys today."

"Okay, so-"

"Uh, Tai, I joined the electronics club that meet every other Monday and Wednesday…" Izzy spoke up as well.

Tai then became silent, and looked around him, waiting for anybody else to jump in, and say they can't come with them to Junes.

"…Alright! So, me, Kari, Matt and Sora, right?" The three nods. "Whew! Okay…"

"But I won't be able to come Wednesday." Kari said. "That's when my dance club is."

"Don't worry. I'm not worried about that day yet. Okay, let's get going to Junes."

"Okay." Sora said.

* * *

At the Junes department store

Tai and Matt walk into the food court, which is on the second floor of the department store. Junes really does have everything you could want in Inaba. They look around, and they see Yu, sitting at a table, looking like he was busy with something. The two of them then walk up to him, and sees what he was doing. He made a dozen origami swan birds, made out of the napkins.

"Whoa, that's impressive." Matt said.

"Heh, thanks." Yu said.

"I might want to learn from you one of these days."

"Anyway, have you heard from Chie or Yukiko yet?" Tai said.

"No, not yet." Yu said. "Chie didn't even come to class today."

"She skipped out?" Yu nods. "Geez. Wonder what happened."

"Hope she'll turn up today with some news." Matt said.

"Yosuke said he wanted to meet with me here." Yu said. "You could wait here with me."

"Okay. Guess we'll take a table over there, since you're pretty busy with something." Tai said.

The two of them then walked to a table nearby, and waited for Yosuke. They waited for a while, before deciding to get something from the food court. It was only around a thousand yen. They got some fries and some burgers to help pass time. Eventually Yosuke ran up to Yu, looking energetic.

"What kept you?" Yu said.

"I found something cool, right in my backyard!" Yosuke exclaimed. He then brought out a sword, and dual daggers out from his pack. "Check these boys out, haha!"

"Whoa, those were in his backyard." Tai said.

"Lucky guy." Matt said.

"Yosuke, are those…?" Yu said, as a Police Officer was passing by, who instantly notices the weapons Yosuke were holding. Uh oh…

"Relax, I won't hurt anybody with these." Yosuke said. "Go on, pick your poison!"

"Pick my, what?"

"Mine would have to be these sweet daggers. But then again, I would look like a badass with both!" For some reason, he licked the side of the daggers, making it look like he's some psychopath.

"Sheesh, I'm not touching that, after he did that." Matt said.

"Hey, speaking of which, how're those monkey wrenches working for ya?" Tai said.

"Well, getting used to them, but I'd prefer something sharper, like Yosuke has."

Then they noticed the police officer pass by them, and was headed for the table Yu and Yosuke was at. He had his radio turned on, as he walked.

"I just come across two suspicious teenage boys wielding a couple of swords." He talked into his radio.

"Wait, he's headed to their table…" Matt said, sweatdropping.

"Oh no…" Tai groaned, holding his head. "Look what you just done, Yosuke…"

Sure enough, the Policeman walked up to the two teens.

"Hey, officer." Yosuke said. "What can I-" The officer then grabbed both of Yosuke's hands, and puts them behind his back.

"You're coming with me kid!" He exclaimed.

"Whoa! Wait! I-It's not what it looks like! We weren't doing anything! You see, me and my friend here are big sword enthusiasts."

"Speak for yourself." Yu argued.

"There's the delinquents!" More officers then came up running to them, with Yosuke trying to get out of the officer's grip, while Yu groaned in annoyance, as resisting an officer of the law was going to be an offense too.

* * *

Later a crowd gathered, with Sora and Kari trying to push through them, trying to see what was going on.

"Excuse me." Kari said, as they passed by some people. "Pardon us."

"We're just trying to get through." Sora said.

When they were able to see, they saw Yu and Yosuke being put into a Police car. The two looked at each other awkwardly. The police car then took off, with the sirens ringing.

"Wait!" Kari yelled, as they ran after the car, but of course, they can't run as fast as the police car.

"Yu! Yosuke!" Sora yelled, as they stopped.

"What just happened? Why did the police arrest them?"

"Nice going Yosuke…" Tai groaned, as they walked up to them.

"Oh, Tai, what happened?"

"Yosuke was showing off some new weapons in the Junes food court, and got themselves in trouble with the police…" Matt said.

"Er…At least Yu's uncle is a detective. He could probably bail them out."

"Yeah, but he's gonna be one mad uncle when he finds out his nephew has been arrested for suspicious activity…"

"Well…" Kari started, before Chie ran up to them.

"Guys, was that Yosuke and Narukami in that police car?" She said.

"Don't ask…" Tai said. "Let's just meet them at the police station and hope they don't press charges."

"No, this is about Yukiko! She disappeared today!"

They were all shocked to hear that.

"She disappeared?" Kari said.

"Wait, but that would mean." Sora said.

"Ah! She was thrown into the TV!" Tai exclaimed.

"That must be the case." Matt said.

"Okay, we need to get Yu and Yosuke out of the Police Station, and we'll head on over into the TV. I just hope we won't be too late."

"Don't say that, Kamiya!" Chie exclaimed. "Let's just get them, and go find Yukiko."

"Okay."

"Can we take the whole teleportation process a little slower today, Tai?" Koromon said, sticking from his bag. "We weren't with you when we went into the TV." Chie then was surprised when she saw Koromon, since this is the first time she ever saw a Digimon.

"Oh, right. Okay, we'll go in a little slower, and make sure you're with us when we go in. We need all the manpower we can get."

"Okay."

"What the heck is that thing?" Chie said. She then touched Koromon. "Ahh! It's real!"

"Not so loud!" Sora said. "You'll draw attention towards us. Now let's go."

* * *

At the police station.

"Dammit, what were you guys thinking?" An assistant said to Yu and Yosuke, as they were walking down a hallway of the Police Station. "Don't go around stirring up trouble. If you weren't Dojima's nephew, trust me, you and your friend wouldn't be getting out of here so easily." They were headed to the entrance of the station, as Yu and Yosuke were let off the hook for this. Yosuke explained that they wanted these weapons to better protect themselves. It wasn't a total lie. They do need these to protect themselves from shadows in the TV World. Even so, they had confiscated their weapons, and now they were empty handed.

"I'm sorry this happened." Yu said, as Yosuke was looking down in shame.

"Hey guys." Kari said, as the group walked through the front door.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" Yosuke said.

"It's Yukiko." Chie said.

"What about her?"

"She's gone missing."

"What?"

"She has?" Yu said.

"She was definitely home last night." Chie said. "I checked, but since then no one's seen her at all. I've asked around everywhere all day today."

"Ah, we already know about this." The assistant said. "Yukiko's family has asked us to start looking for her. Is she, your friend?"

"Yeah."

"Can you remember something unusual happening lately? Did she seemed bother by anything?" The assistant then pulls out a small book, and starts flipping through the pages.

"Like what?" Tai said.

"The murder at the Inn. That's where Miss Yamano was staying at before the incident. Seems Yamano was such a high maintenance guest that Yukiko's mom collapsed from the stress of keeping her happy. So there's that." The assistant then looks around them, to make sure no one's listening in. "See, the guys here has a theory. The rumor here is, Yukiko's hiding out after she did something to get back at Miss Yamano to avenge her mother." That instantly sets off Chie.

"Come on!" She yelled. "You think Yukiko's the murderer!?"

"Whoa, relax! It's just a theory roaming around."

"Well it's LAME!" Chie then sprung forward, trying to grab onto the assistant, in which the others quickly grabbed a hold of her, and was pulling her back before Chie was able to do anything.

"Chie! Calm down!" Yosuke yelled.

"Don't start something in a Police Station of all places!" Matt said, as police officers starts to take notice of the struggle.

"Hey, what's going on here?" A detective then walks on over there, as the others calmed Chie down.

"L-Let's just get going." Tai said.

"Yukiko…" Chie said, on the verge of tears. "…She wouldn't…"

"What did you tell her, Adachi?" The detective said.

"I, er…I just…Sorry, Dojima…" The assistant, known as Adachi said.

"Now you all should calm down. We're trying to find Yukiko, and bring her back."

"I hope she's okay." Sora said.

"Hey, wait." Kari walked up to the man. "Are you, Mr. Dojima?"

"Yes, I am." The man named Dojima said. "Are you my daughter's new friend?"

"Yes, I am! She's really nice."

"Well, I'm glad the two of you are friends, but don't get yourself involved in this case. Just let the police handle this."

"I know sir…"

"Eh, don't worry." Tai said. "We'll be careful."

* * *

Everyone then walked on outside of the Police Station, with Chie still distraught.

"Chie." Sora said.

"We know better, right?" Chie said. Everyone nodded sternly. "Listen guys…We gotta go in and save her…"

"Yeah, but, how can we?" Yosuke said. "They confiscated our weapons in there."

"You need weapons?" Chie said. "Then I know just the place!"

* * *

Chie lead them all to a bizarre shop in the shopping district. The whole shop was an enclosed space, with only dimly lit lights above and a fireplace in the back lighting the place up.

"What kind of shop is this?" Tai said, weirded out.

"A…metalworks shop, I guess?" Chie said. "They sell all sort of metal crap, like kitanas, and bows and such."

"Doesn't it seem weird to you?" Yosuke said.

"How do you know about this place anyway?" Kari said.

"Oh, I get it. One too many kung fu movies and-"

"No! It's nothing like that!" Chie exclaimed. "I just overheard a couple of guys in class mention about this place in the shopping district. They said this place sells weapons and armor. Here, Hikari-chan's the youngest of our group, so we should fit her with some tough armor. How about, this?"

Moments later, Kari was wearing a full suit of armor over her, and she was standing still. That's all that she was doing.

"Well? How is it?" Chie said.

"Can't…move…" Kari groaned. "*Cough* I can't breathe much in here either!" Suddenly, she lost her balance, and she fell right onto her back, in pain. Everyone sweatdrops as that happened. "Agh…Got any more ideas…?"

"Let's not buy armor right now." Tai said. "If our Persona power can protect us, then we don't really need armor right now."

"Uh, but, if we walk around with weapons, won't we all get in trouble with the police again?" Kari said, as she got up from the floor, free from the full suit of armor.

"Oh, that's right." Yosuke said.

"Couldn't we conceal them under our uniforms?" Yu said.

"But, we don't have school uniforms." Tai said. "How are we supposed to carry weapons around the place?"

"It's not like we can walk into Junes with a giant coat all the time and expect no one to notice." Sora said.

"Maybe we can carry your stuff?" Yu said.

"Or, what about Teddie?" Kari said. "Maybe he can keep our stuff safe somewhere in the TV World so we can grab them the next time we need them."

"Okay, we could try that." Yosuke said. "Though the main problem is heading into the store at the moment."

"Our uniforms can hide all the stuff." Chie said.

"Okay, but we should try going into Junes split up." Yosuke said. "Dojima-san said there are officers posted all around town. We shouldn't go in as a group. The officers would get suspicious."

"Then, we'll meet you all at Junes, then."

"You got your stuff picked out already?" Sora said.

"Yep!"

"Sheesh, that was fast." Tai said, sweatdropping.

* * *

Junes, Electrionic department.

The group was standing in front of the TV, ready to jump into the TV World.

"You sure you're gonna be okay, Sora?" Tai said. "You don't have a Persona like us."

"Don't worry about me." She said. "I'm more worried about Yukiko-san."

"Yeah. I'm too." Chie said. "So don't think I'm just going to sit here, and wait for you guys to bring her back."

"Ugh, once her mind is set, you can't stop her…" Yosuke said.

"Okay, so, is everyone ready?" Tai said, getting his glasses out. Everyone nodded, and those who have glasses put them on. Yu then stuck his hand into the TV screen, when nobody was looking and opened the portal. They all then piled into the TV Screen, and were teleporting into the TV World.

* * *

Once they got into the world, they see the big bear, Teddie in there, looking like he's thinking to himself, as he was grabbing his head, and was swaying side to side.

"Hey, that's that bear from last time." Chie said.

"What're you doing?" Yosuke said.

"Can't you tell? I'm thinking about stuff." Teddie said.

"Were you doing this the whole time?" Kari said.

"Yeah. I've been deli-bear-ating over it for a long time now…Hey, now that wasn't a bad joke. Hee hee." All of the others there sweatdropped when Teddie dropped that forced pun.

"So, what were you thinking about?"

"Ah, it's probably nothing." Yosuke said. "We've seen in that big skull of yours. Absolutely nothing."

"H-How rude!" Teddie shouted at Yosuke. "…But you're right, though. I try and try, but nothing comes out of my head."

"Will you guys shut up!?" Chie exclaimed. "We got no time to be saying stupid jokes! Listen, someone came into here yesterday, right?"

"Wow! There's a girl with a better nose than me?" Teddie said. "What's your name miss?"

"M-Miss? I-I'm Chie, but never mind that! Tell me more about that someone!"

"I think it happened a little after you guys got out of here. After that, it felt like someone was here."

"Someone got into here after we left?" Tai said.

"That's pretty convenient…" Matt said.

"Is it Yukiko-san?" Kari said.

"I don't know. I haven't looked." Teddie said. "I'm pretty sure they went that way. I can smell their scent."

"Over there huh?" Chie said. "Come on!" Chie then started sprinting off towards the direction that Teddie had pointed off to.

"Hey! Wait!" Tai yelled after her, as the others start running towards where Teddie had picked up the presence of potentially Yukiko.

 _ **TO BE CONTINUED**_


	6. Chapter 6: To Love or Not to Love

_**A/N:**_ By the way, if the Shadow Confrontation made no sense or was confusing, I'm sorry. I couldn't think of any better ideas...

 _CHAPTER 6:_  
To Love, or Not to Love

 _ **Persona series © ATLUS  
Digimon Adventure © Toei Animation**_

 _ **4/17 Monday  
After School**_

Teddie had lead them to the new area that appeared when Yukiko disappeared. The area was a familiar castle, with the same red and black sky.

"Didn't we see this place on the Midnight Channel last night?" Sora said.

"Seems like it." Tai said.

"Hey Teddie, is Yukiko in there for real?" Yosuke said.

"There's no doubt about it." Teddie said. "My snout has even locked onto her scent!"

"You know, now that I think about it, shouldn't there be other people in this weird world?" Tai said, thinking to himself. "I mean, there has to be someone working that camera for that weird Midnight Channel program."

"Program?" Teddie spoke up. "I don't get it."

"Huh? You don't know what a program is?" Matt said.

"Hey, welcome to my world." Tai said.

"Not that type of program."

"You don't know what a TV show is?" Kari asked Teddie, speaking in more simpler words.

"I still don't know what that means." Teddie said. "Maybe people on your world can see things in this world. And I told you from before, there isn't supposed to be anybody else in this place. Only me and shadows. There's no camera stuff going on. This world has been like this from the beginning."

"The beginning?" Tai said. "THAT'S what we don't get. When was this world even made?"

"Do you think this place has something to do with the Digital World?" Sora said.

"Agh, this is too confusing." Tai said.

"Why don't we focus on the task at hand?" Yu said. "We'll try to solve this later."

"Right! Yukiko needs our help right now, so we can't dwaddle on this." Chie said.

"Oh, can I ask one more question?" Teddie said.

"What's that?" Yosuke said.

"Did this Yukiko person do anything in this 'Program?'"

"Well, she was saying all sorts of weird stuff, like 'score myself a hot stud.'" Chie said.

"Score myself a hot stud?"

"Yeah, I meant to ask that." Kari said. "What does that mean? Do all girls do that?"

"Agh, I told you, that's not something you should be learning when you're young." Yosuke groaned, while holding his head. He then leaned over to Yu, while Chie looks towards the castle. "Ugh, I swear, these kids better not see anything revealing…" Yosuke whispered to Yu.

"I'm sure they'll be fine." Yu said.

"Yeah, but what if-"

"Yukiko…" Chie said, looking towards the castle. "I can feel her presence…Yukiko…" Chie, without warning, then started running into the castle.

"Chie!" Sora exclaimed, running after her.

"Wait, guys, hold on!" Yosuke yelled. "Dammit!" They all then started running after them, leaving Teddie behind.

"GYAH! Don't leave my beary-behind behind!" Teddie yelled, as he frantically started after them. "You didn't even tell me what scoring a hot stud means!"

* * *

Chie was running through the red colored hallways, trying to get to Yukiko, with Sora behind her.

 _(Yukiko…Where are you…?)_ Chie thought in her head, as she ran.

 _(Chie doesn't even hear me.)_ Sora thought in her head. _(Geez, it's so hard to see here. I can barely see Chie. Maybe I should have asked Teddie for some glasses…No, if I turn back, I'll lose Chie, and we'll probably won't be able to find her. I have to keep after her…)_

Because they don't have glasses, they can't see through the fog very well. They couldn't even see the shadows that were appearing behind them that were blocking the Persona users. These shadows look like two people in brown robes, with a rod impaling their heads, body and legs.

"They don't even see them." Yosuke said.

"They're blind without their own pair of glasses." Matt said.

"What do you say?" Yu said.

"Let's go!" Tai exclaimed.

The Persona users all summoned the cards, as the blue light encompasses them all.

"PERSONA!" Tai and Yu yelled, as they crushed their cards, summoning Izanagi and Alke to their side.

"Bring it on!" Yosuke exclaimed. "PERSONA!" He then jumped, and punched his card when it was just over his head. He then summoned his Persona to his side.

"You won't stop me!" Matt exclaimed. "PERSONA!" He then punched the card when it was at eye level, and he summoned Yamainu to his side.

"Alright!" Kari cheered. "PERSONA!" She pressed the card against her chest, and summoned Phanes to her side.

First, Izanagi flew forward, and sliced the shadows in half. Alke comes forward, and throws out a fire attack, finishing this set of shadows, but only barely.

"Alright Sensei!" Teddie exclaimed. "These shadows are weak to Fire attacks!"

"Okay, got it!" Tai responded. "Do it some more, Alke!"

Alke then fired out more fire attacks, and obliterated another set of shadows. One more set was coming for them, and they knocked them back to their controllers. Yu and Tai at the same time attacks, and destroyed those shadows. Yu has the sword from earlier, while Tai was still stuck with the driver. Nether-the-less, they managed to destroy the shadows.

"Nicely done!" Teddie exclaimed. "But boy, you got lucky there. Those guys seem resistant to physical attacks."

"Thanks for the heads up." Yu said.

"Jiraiya!" Yosuke called out to his Persona. Jiraiya responded by attacking the legs of the shadows, as they were floating towards Yosuke, and Yosuke destroyed those shadows by slashing them. He was using the twin daggers from earlier. "Ha!" Jiraiya then sent out a tornado attack that sucked up the shadows into there, however, it didn't do a thing to them. "Huh? What the…?"

"Yosuke, you've got a lot to learn." Teddie said.

"Man, all I get is crap from you!"

"Don't you get it? These guys can block wind attacks!"

"Well, how am I supposed to know that? It's trail and error when facing these guys!"

"I got them!" Kari exclaimed. "Phanes!" Phanes brought her hand forward, and sent out an electric attack, however, just like with Jiraiya, it didn't do a thing to them. "Huh!? They can block Zio too!?"

"Okay, so blast fire attacks only." Tai said. "I'm your man! Alke!" Alke then fired out more Agi attacks, and destroyed more shadows. "So if fire attacks can beat them, then Agumon can help out! Hey, Koromon! Time to-" He then checks around them, and noticed that their Digimon were missing again. "C'mon! Not again!"

"Did they go ahead without us too?" Kari said.

"Ngh, let's go find them after we're done here."

"Uh, guys! We got another one here!" Yosuke shouted, as he pointed to a group of three. These shadows look like crosses, with a white mask in the middle, with a weight balance in the middle. It was colored red on one side while it was colored blue on the other.

"These guys look tough." Teddie said.

"We should attack them all at once." Yu said.

"Gotcha." Yosuke said. "Ready?"

"Okay, let's all attack!"

Their Personas all attacked the shadows with their elemental attacks, however, this proved to be a big mistake. The shadows didn't seem fazed by the barrage at all, and to add to that, they sent all the attacks right back to the Personas! Right as the Personas got hit, the Persona users all felt that attack.

"GYAH! What the heck!?" Tai exclaimed.

"Oh no! All of your elemental attacks can be reflected by these shadows!" Teddie yelled.

"I see that, but why did it feel like that attack hit us?"

"Our Personas may be linked to us." Yu said. "Everything that happens to them happens to us."

"What?"

"It makes sense when we're using much of our attacks too much. We all get tired."

"It kinda does make sense...I guess..." Matt said.

"Look out! Here they come!" Kari yelled.

The shadows were rushing towards them all. One was headed for Kari, in which she dodged the attack, and fired her bow at them.

"Gah, we're wasting our time!" Tai said. "Let's go! We need to catch up to those girls!"

* * *

Everyone then started running away from the shadows. Their onslaught seems never ending, and they all decided to deal with them later. The Persona-less girls were their priority.

 _(Chie…Where did you go?)_ Sora thought in her head, as it seems that she lost Chie. The fog seems to be getting worse the more she runs, though it does seem like the hallways aren't branching. She seems to be going the right and only way. As she was running, the fog starts going away a little bit. For a second she starts worrying, because she knows if the fog clears up, she's in mortal danger of the shadows, considering they would start going berserk. She was able to see a door come up to her, and she stopped right in front of it, before she crashed into it. She then opens the door, and sees that the room was filled with fog inside. "Chie! Are you in there?" She then starts walking into the room, trying to look for Chie and/or Yukiko.

She was walking for a few minutes. It seemed as if she was lost. She tried going back the direction she walked, but only found more fog. No one was answering her. It was just the hollow groans of the room she was in.

"D-Did I get myself lost? Where am I?"

Before she knew it, she was standing in some sort of street. Everything was greyed out in different shades of grey. It looked like she was in a residential district in Inaba, with no one around though.

"Where am I now?"

" _Her daughter looks nice."_ A voice said.

"Huh? Who said that?"

" _Yeah, she looks nice, but trust me, I hear she isn't."_ Another one said.

"Is this like what happened to Saki?"

" _She's that new transfer student, right?"_

" _Yeah. They're the Takenouchis."_

"Huh? They're talking about me?"

" _I heard that Toshiko is being harassed by her own daughter."_

"What!?"

" _The nerve of that girl. Her mother gives her much love, and she never returns it?"_

"I love my mother! What are you talking about!?"

" _She looks at love as if it's a joke. And if she does show love, my guess is that she uses that to her advantage."_

 _(O-Okay Sora. This is what happened to Yosuke. These must be truths…Just accept it, just accept it…)_ More voices start entering the area. They start to overwhelm the girl. _(I-I can't…I can't do it! I just can't accept this is true! I-I love my own mother. No way do I think this way! These are lies! I-I mean, I didn't really love her all that much back then, but…)_

" _Why can't that girl stop kicking that ball, and start to love her own mother? I'm sure her father would have liked that."_

" _Where is her father anyway?"_

" _I heard Haruhiko is working at Kyoto University, and can't come home most of the time."_

" _It must be a pain to see his wife and daughter not loving each other."_

"S-Stop it! That's enough!"

"Oh, suck it up." A voice said, from behind Sora. "You hate love, and only use it for your own good."

Sora looks behind her, and sees someone she probably expected to show her face sooner or later. As she looked, it seemed as of the street scenery has just disappeared, and the color reappeared.

"You…" Sora said. "Y-You're…"

"That's right. I'm you. Your own shadow!"

"Why are you torturing me like this?"

"Torture? All I'm doing is show you what the people of this town thinks of you."

"No! That's wrong! We only just moved here! Nobody would know about us that quick!"

"But that's something you know people would think if they saw the real you."

"But…"

"If people saw the real you, they would know you have a horrible time loving someone."

"No. No, no, no, I'm not falling for it!" Sora said, grabbing her head. "Just accept it, Sora. Just accept it, Sora…"

"You can't. You're too weak. You're too weak to accept the truth. You are horrible at loving somebody."

"What!? No! If I couldn't do it, my crest of love wouldn't activate! I wouldn't have Super Digivolved Birdramon then!"

"But that's just it, huh? You only love because you're supposed to."

"That's nonsense! I do love my friends and family!"

"Then can you tell me the last time you felt love?"

"Huh?"

"Can you tell me how it felt to love someone?"

"I…I…" Sora stuttered, having a surprisingly hard time at this. She's supposed to be the Digidestined of Love, and she can't really express love-like feelings. The only time she does that is while she's activating her crest. Other than that though, it seems that she rarely expresses some love-like feelings.

"See, you can't show anymore emotions, because you are too weak!"

"Weak!?"

"Or is it because, you got something else you're hiding?"

"What?"

"You act like the big sister of the entire group, but I know, deep down within you, that you hate it!"

"I hate it? Me?"

"Tai and Matt fighting, Mimi acting like a coward, Izzy stuck in his computer, T.K. and Kari acting like brats, Joe acting like a nervous nerd, you hate all that!"

"Shut up! That's not what I think! They're my friends!"

"Sora!" Tai, Kari and Matt all ran into the area, and sees Sora and her shadow.

"Wait, is that, her shadow?" Kari said.

"No, don't come any closer!" Sora exclaimed, having a nervous breakdown from what it seems. "Don't come near me!"

"Sora!" Tai exclaimed. "You're not safe!" They all tried to run towards her, however, shadows appeared from the ground. They were blocking their lath, and were surrounding Sora.

"Dang it!" Matt exclaimed, as the three of them all had their backs to each other.

"There's so many of them!" Kari exclaimed.

"Now your friends are here to hear this." Sora's Shadow said. "You hate being the big sister of the group, and you hate that you have to babysit the Digidestined!"

"Stop It!" Sora yelled.

"Huh? What's she saying?" Kari said.

"That doesn't matter!" Tai said. "Sora, don't fall for it! You need to be strong!"

"N-No!" Sora yelled. "They're all lies!"

"And here is a real kicker that I know about you." The Shadow said. "You were just using the love of your friends as a tool! You don't appreciate the love! You only just use it! Hey, what doesn't hurt you makes you stronger, am I right?"

"Shut up! Just shut up!"

"Sora, don't say it!" Tai yelled.

"That's not what I feel! She's not me!"

 _ ***I'LL FACE MYSELF***_

The shadow laughs, as the accursed words have been spoken, and she was transforming. She turned into a humanoid bird creature, with red feathers, with a black tint on the back of the wings. There were crimson machinery parts on her wings, and a bandana with an inverted symbol of the Crest of Love. Also the talons seem to have chains on them, seemingly holding her legs back.

"I am a shadow of the true inner self!" The Shadow exclaimed.

"Sora!" Matt yelled, as he sent out Yamainu to slash at the shadows. He did it with ease, and the Shadows were destroyed. Just as Shadow Sora was about to attack Sora, Matt dove in, and got Sora out of the way, just in time.

"Don't get in my way!" Shadow Sora exclaimed. Out of her wings, she shot feathers towards the Persona users. That is until Alke got in the way, and defended them. "So, you want to continue to be a pain, huh? Fine then! I guess I'll have to kill you!" She then sent out fire attacks towards the group, however, Izanagi intervened.

"Got here just in time!" Tai said, as he sees Yu next to him, controlling Izanagi.

"Thanks, but, we got another one to deal with." Yu said.

"Another one?"

"Get back here, so I can kill you!" A voice yelled. On the other side of the room, which apparently was a giant ballroom, Jiraiya was fending off against another shadow that has a yellow outfit on, as well as a hood covering the face that looks similar to an executioner's hood. She also looked like she was sitting on something unusual. Teddie was also there, freaking out as usual.

"Whose shadow is that?" Tai said.

"It's Chie's." Yu said. "We'll have to fend both of them off at the same time."

"Gotcha."

Tai and Yu then went back to concentrating on their respective battles. The loose feathers on Shadow Sora turned into spikes, in which she shot them out towards Matt, who's still with Sora.

"Matt, look out!" Kari yelled. Phanes sent out a lightning attack, and that toppled Shadow Sora onto the ground, as Matt and Sora got out of the way quickly.

"That did something!" Tai exclaimed. "Alke, come on!" Tai then sent out Alke to shoot out a fire attack at Shadow Sora. However, it looked like it didn't do anything.

"Fire attacks aren't working on her!" Teddie exclaimed.

The Shadow then got up, and got ready to attack.

"Look out! Here she comes!" Tai exclaimed. Shadow Sora then blasted fire from her wings, and that propelled her forward to the group. She was rocketing towards them. She was about to ram into them all, until Yamainu stepped in, and was protecting them all from the attack. He was trying to push the shadow back, as Matt was feeling the struggle Yamainu is feeling. Unfortunately, the shadow was stronger, and slammed Yamainu away. When Yamainu was slammed away, Matt felt the impact of that, and he was slammed away as well.

"Matt!" Tai yelled.

"L-Leave them alone!" Sora yelled. "Stop it!"

"You're not in charge of me." Her shadow said.

"Just stop! Leave my friends alone!"

"Why? So you can manipulate them more?"

"I don't manipulate my friends!"

"Of course you do! Without them, you're just nothing! That's why they're my friends! I'm absolutely nothing without them."

"That's not…that…"

"Don't let her get to you, Sora." Matt said, struggling to get up. Unfortunately, one of the feathers on the shadow extended to the length of a ribbon, and it wrapped around Matt's neck, tightly.

"Matt!" Sora yelled.

"Oh no, not again!" Kari yelled. "Phanes!"

Phanes rushes forward, and tries Zio once again. However, Shadow Sora was guarding at that time, and didn't topple as a result of the attack. She then retaliated, and clawed Phanes' face, in which the poor girl felt the impact of the attack on her face. Taking this opportunity, the machinery parts on the wings fired, and sent them both hurtling back.

"Kari! No!" Tai exclaimed. "Yu! Yosuke! We need some help over here!"

"We need some serious help as well!" Yosuke yelled, on the other end of the room. They were also having problems with Chie's shadow.

"Ngh! Guess we're on our own…Don't worry, guy! I'm coming!"

"Silence!" Shadow Sora sent out an attack towards Tai, however, he dodged it. "These are my true colors, Taichi! Do you like me? Or do you hate me?"

"Tai doesn't hate me! He wouldn't!" Sora exclaimed.

"Sora, don't let her trick you!" Tai yelled.

"I'm not tricking her." Shadow Sora said. "Like it or not, this is how I truly feel!"

Shadow Sora then sent out a flame attack that seemed to engulf everything. The flames were surrounding Sora.

 _ ***ENDS***_

She thought after that she was done for sure, but she looked around. Nothing but flames are everywhere.

 _I'm only in this for the support…I don't really need anyone…Not even my mother…_

A voice that sounds like Sora's echoes.

 _Tai always acts like he's king of the world. There's no way he is. He's only with me for my power…_

"Is…this…?" Sora said, frightened.

"Yes, these are voices that are suppressed within your heart. This is how you truly feel…" Shadow Sora's voice said.

 _Without them, I would be a complete weakling. I wouldn't have anything else to power me up…_

 _If it weren't for Tai, I couldn't do anything…_

 _I wouldn't be able to manipulate anyone if it weren't for Tai, Matt, Izzy, Joe, Mimi, T.K. and Kari…_

"No! NO! T-This can't be true! No!"

The voices started getting louder, sprouting more and more facts, that are starting to get to Sora. The flames started getting closer to her, and were going to engulf and incinerate her. It was getting hot, and she couldn't mentally take this anymore. Eventually, she started giving in, and the flames were coming even faster now.

"This is…how I truly feel…?" Sora mumbled, as the flame was about to get to her. "Oh no…"

"So what!?" Tai's voice exclaimed, getting Sora's attention.

"Huh?"

"Everyone has a side that they don't want anyone else to see!"

"Yeah!" Matt shouted. "That's how I got my Persona, remember? I had to accept a side I don't want to think is true."

"I don't really care if you do think of me and the others that way." Kari said. "You're my friend, and if you like your friends, isn't that like loving someone?"

"She's right." Yu's voice said. "You're not only blocking yourself from the bad truths, but the good truths."

"We may not know you all that much, but we know you wouldn't hate your own friends, right?" Yosuke's voice said, though it sounded like his voice was struggling a bit. "Isn't there someone you know who you would never hate, and would never hate you?"

Right when Yosuke said that, Sora thinks of Biyomon immediately. She thinks what she would do in this situation. She would protect Sora with all her life, and she would encourage Sora to get out of this rut because she can feel what it's like to Love.

She remembers when they were facing against Myotismon, and Birdramon was heavily outmatched, and when it seemed all was lost for her friend, Sora shouted that she loves her, and that made her gain the power to Digivolve into the Ultimate level.

The crest of Love activating was proof enough that she can feel love, but not for the reason of manipulating. She has it because she genuinely can feel what it's like to be loved. Her confused feelings, and stress had gotten in the way of all this. And all those confused feelings and stress was the manifestation of her shadow. The shadow that was right in front of her.

"…You're right…I may not be so strong with Love, and I may find it difficult at times, but if everyone else is sending their Love to me, I know that I'm able to send it right back to everyone…" Sora closed her eyes, and the flames all around her started going away, bringing her back to everyone else.

"Listen, I know that you may be a dark side of me. I know you may be the hatred in me. I know you may be the pathetic part of me. But, that's how it is, huh? I can't ignore this forever, so, this really, is something that I need to accept. What you said, about me being nothing without my friends...that is right. I will be nothing if I lose the love of my friends, but not because I won't be able to use it...they're my friends. And I don't ever want to lose the love that they brought me, which is also why I kept those feelings of my friends cooped up in me. I may think of that with my friends, but what would my friends think of that? But…I can't run from it…can I? Those feelings…I have to accept it, don't I?"

"That's, it..." Matt said, encouraging her some more.

Shadow Sora started getting glitch in her appearance, and she shrieked in pain.

"Are you serious!? You're really going to accept all that!? You're weak! You're too weak!" Shadow Sora blasted another fire attack towards Sora, but Alke jumped into the attack, and took the fire straight in his chest. He was hurled back, along with Tai, who felt that attack burning in his chest.

"Tai!" Sora yelled.

"Okay! That tears it!" Matt exclaimed, trying to get out of Shadow Sora's grip. Though the Shadow tightened her grip on his neck, and was threatening to strangle him to death.

"Matt! No!"

"Agh…P-Phanes…" Kari weakly called out, as she tries to get up to get Matt out of the shadow's grip, but Phanes was struggling to get up as well.

"Ngh…Matt…" Tai groaned, as he got up. He sees that his little sister was lying on the ground injured, and his two best friends were about to be killed. He then sees Yu and the others on the other side of the room. They were in deep trouble as well, as they were pretty much in the same predicament. Tai doesn't know what to do here. He was afraid they were all going to lose. Not when they got this far…

" _I've been waiting for you…"_ A voice rang in Tai's mind. It was a familiar voice; one he heard from, recently.

* * *

After literally blinking, Tai realized that he was in a moving limousine. After processing this a bit, he realized he was sitting in the Velvet Room again, with Igor and Margaret in front of him.

"Igor?" Tai said. "Geez, how do you keep getting me back into this freaky limo?"

"Your powers are starting to awaken." Margaret said.

"My powers?"

"You are the leader of the 8 Digidestined, meaning that your powers of being a Digidestined Persona user are starting to awaken." Igor said.

"You have the power to call upon you partner's help as you please." Margaret said. "Have you noticed?"

The card that Tai smashes whenever he summons his Persona floats down in front of his eyes.

"Your tarot card has your symbol of Courage on it. Your Persona has been infused by the power of one's Courage, allowing you to switch between the two faces of it. The original side is your original Persona, Alke, however, you can change it to the second face that will allow you to summon your partner."

"My partner?"

"He resides within the sea of your souls whenever you enter the new realm."

"All Personas are born out of one's soul." Igor said. "When you have a complete understanding, your Persona manifests itself out of your soul, and they reside within you from then on."

"But, what exactly are you saying? My partner?" Tai said.

"You should know of him." Margaret said. "Now, the time has come. Summon your partner to your side. Once you unlock this power, the other Digidestined Persona users shall gain the power to change as well…chosen one…"

* * *

In a flash, Tai realizes he was back in the battlefield. He sees that virtually no time has passed since entering the Velvet Room again, which was good. Still, it weirded him out…

"Call my partner…?" Tai mumbled. "What…" He then feels something deep in his soul. He feels the presence of his friend, who was probably trapped in his soul this whole time. He now knows what to do. "Change!" Tai brought his hand forward, towards Alke, and Alke changed back into his card form. "Greymon!" The card shone, and it flipped to the back side, showing a picture of his Digimon partner. The card then shattered, and something was being summoned.

 _ ***I'LL FACE MYSELF***_

A blue aura was rising from the place where Alke was, and in his place, was a familiar monster that the Digidestined instantly recognized. Once the blue aura has vanished, the monster roared, and stood his ground. This monster was orange, with blue stripes, and has a guard on his snout. This monster was Tai's Digivolved partner, Greymon. The teens from the other side were able to see the Digimon from where they were.

"GYAAHH!" Teddie screamed, in shock.

"Greymon!?" Kari exclaimed. "Where did he come from!?"

"Well, it's about time you called me, Tai!" Greymon exclaimed. "I've been waiting for a long time, y'know!?"

"Sorry bud." Tai said. "I just couldn't hear your voice trapped within my soul…"

"Aw, no fair! This blows! They get to use two Personas!?" Yosuke yelled.

"They?" Tai then turned to where Yu and the others were, and Yu had another Persona right behind him that doesn't look like Izanagi. This Persona looks like a snowman with a face resembling a Jack-O-Lantern, and a blue hat.

"How did you do that!?" Matt said, able to talk, considering Shadow Sora had lightened her grip.

"Our Digimon have been trapped in us the whole time."

"What?"

"Call to them. They're in there."

"Call?" When Tai mentions that their Digimon partners were trapped in their souls, Matt and Kari feels the presence of them at that moment. They feel their power, and the desire to be let out. They faced their Personas respectively, and commanded them to change. They did, and they turned into their tarot card forms.

"Gatomon!" Kari exclaimed.

"Garurumon!" Matt exclaimed.

The cards shattered, and something else was being summoned in their places. Kari's feline Digimon, as well as Matt's ferocious Digimon Gatomon and Garurumon were summoned in their Personas' places.

"Alright!" Kari exclaimed.

"Oof…What happened?" Gatomon groaned, while holding her head. "It felt like I went on some wacky ride."

"Matt!" Garurumon exclaimed, upon seeing his friend getting strangled by the neck.

"C-Could use a little help here…" Matt chocked out.

"Don't worry! Hiyah!"

Garurumon rushed forward, and tried clawing the shadow, before the feathers of Shadow Sora were shot towards him, forcing him to stop, and avoid the attacks.

"Kari, mind bringing me up to speed?" Gatomon said to Kari, as she helps her get up.

"It's a long story." Kari said. "Right now, we need to help out Sora."

"Right." Gatomon then start running towards the shadow, swiftly dodging her attacks, and managed to get up to the Shadow's face, and claw her, making her stumble back.

"Gah! Y-You brat!" Shadow Sora exclaimed, while diverting her attention towards Kari. She fires a blast of fire towards her, but Garurumon was able to pick the young girl up, and get her out of harm's way.

"Thanks, Garurumon." Kari said.

"No problem!" Garurumon answered. "Just keep hanging on! I need to find an opening to get Matt free."

While Garurumon was avoiding Shadow Sora's attacks, Tai and Yu both met up with each other in the center of the room.

"You can change your Persona too?" Yu said.

"Y-Yeah. I know it's not the right time and everything, but this is supposed to be Koromon." Tai said. "He's grown into this big guy."

"Yup!" Greymon said.

The two of them look towards the two battles that were going on separately on each side of the room.

"How about we trade?" Tai said. "I can take care of Chie's shadow, while you help out with Sora's."

"Sounds like a plan." Yu said. The two Persona users nod, and they started headed off to help each other out. Tai went to Chie, and Yosuke, while Yu went to Matt, Sora and Kari.

"Hey, Yosuke! Need some help?" Tai said, as he and Greymon ran up.

"Don't interfere, brat!" Chie's shadow snapped at the boy, while trying to attack them with her whip. Both Tai and Greymon dodged the attack, as Yu got up to the others.

"Matt! Hang in there!" Yu exclaimed.

"T-This isn't the time for jokes, Yu!" Matt yelled, as he still tries to get out of Shadow Sora's grip, and as Garurumon avoids another attack from Shadow Sora. Yu then brought his hand forward to the shadow, and ordered his new Persona to attack.

"Jack Frost!" Yu yelled, as his snowman Persona fired off Bufu attacks, while yelling 'Hee-Ho!' The attacks made contact with Shadow Sora, and it looked like it was very effective, as it was enough to topple her. It was also enough for Garurumon to go forward, and chew on the feathers that was holding Matt's neck, and rip it into two, freeing Matt.

"Alright! Time to turn the tables!" Tai exclaimed. "Greymon!"

"Got it!" Greymon shouted. "Nova Blast!" Greymon fired off his attack towards the ribbons holding Yosuke's neck, and released him.

"Gah…Thanks Kamiya. That's another one I owe ya." Yosuke said, as he landed on his feet. Shadow Chie then snarled at the two of them, as they grouped up. "Shall we take her?"

"Yeah!" Tai said. He then starts running forward, as Shadow Chie tries to get a hold of his neck, but Greymon acted as a diversion. The ribbons caught a hold of his tail, but he proved to be stronger, as he was able to easily pull Shadow Chie to the ground. "Yosuke?"

"On it! All-Out Attack!"

The two of them ran forward towards Shadow Chie, and started beating her up in a big ball of violence. Though after the dust cloud went away, she was revealed to be up and kicking still.

"Rgh…Why, why you! You're…You're nothing against me!" Shadow Chie yelled.

Meanwhile, Gatomon slashed at Shadow Sora, as Jack Frost fired off Mabufu, and toppled her once again onto the ground.

"Alright, time for our All-Out Attack!" Yu ordered.

"Right!" Matt answered.

"Got it!" Kari said, as the three of them ran forward, and started beating Shadow Sora up in a big ball of violence. However, she got up, and blasted them all away with fire. Though it wasn't too serious of damage, except for Yu, who got toppled onto the ground. Shadow Sora fired her feathers towards Yu and Jack Frost, who was looking nervous, before Garurumon dashed towards the shadow, and bashed into her before she even gets the attack out.

"Neko Kick!" Shadow Sora didn't see Gatomon come from out of nowhere fast enough, and got kicked straight in the face. The Digimon then landed besides her partner, as Narukami gets up.

"Why…You…!" Shadow Sora groaned.

"So, that thing's supposed to be Sora's feelings, or something?" Gatomon said.

"Pretty much." Kari said.

"Alright. We can't waste any more time." Yu said. "Let's finish this."

 _ ***REACH OUT TO THE TRUTH***_

"Right!" The two other kids nod.

"Gatomon?" Kari said, looking at her Digimon.

"Yep." Gatomon nods. She gets her claws ready, as she is about to perform Lightning Claw, before lightning sparks literally start coming out of her claws. "Huh? I know I can do Lightning Claw, but I didn't mean it literally."

"Wait, this could be good." Yu said. "We can finish her off with two weaknesses!"

"Oh…Well…Glad I came up with this, then…"

"Yosuke?" Tai said, as he and Yosuke starts preparing to perform the finishing blow to Shadow Chie.

"Yep. I got it dude." Yosuke said. "Jiraiya!"

Jiraiya went forward, and fired off Garu. It wasn't that effective on the shadow at first, before Tai brought his hand forward.

"Greymon!" Tai yelled.

"Nova Blast!" Greymon fired off a fire attack towards Shadow Chie, and with the wind spell, it was creating flames everywhere, which was very effective towards Shadow Chie, and it had engulfed her, as she was screaming in pain. The shadow then collapsed onto the ground, in a big heap of flames and fabric.

"Alright!"

"Garurumon!" Matt yelled, as Garurumon was ordered to bash into Shadow Sora one more time, and made her stumble a bit, before Kari and Yu comes in for their finishing blow.

"Jack Frost!" Yu yelled.

"Gatomon!" Kari yelled.

The Persona and Digimon both ran forward towards Shadow Sora to finish her off. Jack Frost fires off Bufu, while Gatomon gets her Lightning Claws ready. Bufu hits Shadow Sora first, freezing her in place, while Gatomon jumps towards her, and pulls back her claws.

"Lightning Claw!" Gatomon yelled, as she slashes the shadow down, finishing her off. The Shadow groans in pain, as she collapses onto the ground.

Soon after they all finished the two tough shadows, they reverted into mirrored images of their real selves.

 _ ***ENDS***_

"We did it!" Kari exclaimed.

"Sora?" Yu said, looking at the pre-teen. "Go on."

"…Right…" Sora nods. She slowly walks up to her other self, who looks like she's not as aggressive as she was before. "I'll…I'll admit I actually do think of those things…I know they are the truth, because, you're me, and I'm you."

Calm Shadow Sora nods, and smiles, as Sora had acquired the strength of heart required to face oneself. Shadow Sora's body then dissolved into a blue aura, and turned into something like her violent form. There weren't any chains on her legs, and the feathers were more of a defined red, instead of red and black. The Crimson machinery parts were more bionic, like an android, and were silver. The talons were still sharp, but they were shorter, and has an obsidian color to them. Lastly, the head resembled that of a combination of dove and swan, and the bandana – turned into a scarf – has the normal symbol for the crest of Love on it.

It then turned into a card form, and floated down towards Sora, right into her hands. It has a heart in the center of the card, with two silhouettes on both sides of the heart, showing a man and a woman. The symbol for the crest of love was right in the heart silhouette. The roman numeral on the bottom of this card shows 6 (VI).

"I-Is this…?" Sora said, holding the card.

"It's your Persona." Yu said.

"Now you got one, like us." Kari said.

"My own…Persona…" Sora said. She then felt her legs weaken, and she fell to her knees on the ground, and the others all ran up to her, making sure she's alright.

"Are you okay?" Matt said, holding Sora steady.

"I-I'm fine…Just a bit dizzy."

"You're probably tired from getting your own Persona." Yu said.

"I don't think it's safe for Sora to be in here." Kari said. "Maybe we should head back?"

"N-No way!" They heard Chie's voice from the other side of the room, and they remembered that she was still here. Yu starts walking over there, while Matt helps Sora to her feet, and keeps her steady, as they and Kari start following.

"Look Chie. I know you want to find Yukiko, but, you need to take it easy." Yosuke said.

"Yeah. You need to rest." Tai said.

"B-But…I can keep going…" Chie groaned.

"Don't overdo it!" Teddie said.

"They're right." Yu said, as they all walked up to them. "We want to save Yukiko as much as you do, but you need to rest. With all of us here together, we have a better chance at saving her. That's why it's most important for all of us to be at full strength."

"Yeah…I'm getting a bit tired too…" Kari said.

"All of us are pretty exhausted…" Tai said. "We can't save Yukiko in this state."

"B-But, Yukiko's still trapped in here, right?" Chie said.

"Don't worry." Teddie said. "Yukiko-chan's a normal, and the shadows in here don't attack normal people. They'll only attack when the fog lifts here."

"So she'll be safe until then?" Kari said.

"I'm positive."

"Why? I don't get it." Chie said.

"It's a long story." Yosuke said.

"Until then, just trust us." Yu said. "Yukiko will be fine in here for now until the fog starts covering Inaba."

"B-But, Yukiko will be in here all alone!" Chie exclaimed. "She'll be so scared!"

"There's going to be more enemies up ahead." Yosuke said. "If we just charge in as is, it'll just a death sentence for us. Then who'll be the ones to save Yukiko-san!? We can't fail no matter what. Am I wrong?"

"No." Kari said. Chie then sighed profusely, as they helped her up.

"Alright…" Chie said. "…I'm sorry about rushing in before…I shouldn't have…"

"Don't worry." Sora said. "I kinda followed you in here all by myself too without the others. I wanted to make sure you were safe. I mean, I couldn't just let you go in all alone. I thought of the monsters that could have gotten you, but I didn't really think of myself."

"That's why you have the crest of Love Sora." Tai said. "Always think of others before yourself."

"Right…Thanks Tai."

"I, may have heard you while I was running Sora-chan." Chie said. "Sorry for not listening to you. I was so focused on Yukiko, that I didn't really think of who was following me…"

"No, it's fine."

"Hey, you think after all this, and if- I mean, _when_ we get Yukiko back, think we can go out for some Nikudon?"

"Yeah! Sounds like a plan!"

"That's good."

"Alright, let's head on out of here." Yosuke said, as everyone starts heading off.

* * *

 _ **Afternoon**_

The current group was hanging out by Junes Food Court, as they see Yosuke helping out alongside the other employees.

"Hmph. Too tired to keep on going in the TV World, but not too tired to work a shift…" Tai said.

"Well, I don't think his dad is letting him get a lot of off days." Matt said.

"Or maybe he used them all up already."

"So…whenever the fog comes here, the fog lifts in the TV World, and the shadows will attack anyone?" Chie said, affirming to what Yu told her.

"Yeah. That's right." Yu nods.

"So…That's our deadline, right?"

"Yeah."

"Oh…Poor Yukiko…"

"Don't worry about it." Taichi said. "Look, we all agreed on finding Yukiko-san, so let's not worry."

"I checked the weather forecast on those TVs in the electronic department." Matt said. "There aren't any days where it's going to be foggy, and the next rainy day isn't until a little over a week away."

"We got plenty of time then, but let's not get too distracted. Remember, saving Yukiko is a top priority."

"Yep. We got it." Kari said.

"Thank you for everything guys…" Chie said.

"You're welcome." Sora said.

"And as a token of my thanks, I'll show you something." Chie then reached into her pocket, and got out her green flip-phone. She opened it up, and showed off a picture of her and a pretty big dog off to everyone.

"Aww, he looks cute." Kari said.

"Yeah…He's a serious porker, and stinks like nobody's business. But if it weren't for this guy, me and Yukiko wouldn't have been friends to begin with." Chie said.

"I'm sure you give him lots of love, huh?" Sora said.

"Yeah. If you want, you can come over and visit him."

"Sure. I'd love to."

"Yeah…" Chie said, as she starts staring into the picture, and starts thinking of Yukiko again. Starting today everyone is now a team. Their days of pursuing this case of mysterious murders and the mysterious TV world alongside each other has begun.

* * *

 _ **Evening**_

Like what Matt had told them from earlier, the weather forecast has stated that it'll be sunny and cloudy throughout the week, with a small rain shower in the middle of the week, though that isn't going to create any fog.

After dinner, the two siblings headed upstairs to their room, and Koromon and Salamon were waiting for them.

"Ate a nice dinner?" Koromon said.

"We saved some left overs for you for tomorrow." Kari said.

"Thanks." Salamon said.

"So, let's talk about something." Tai said.

"What? Talk about what?"

"About you getting stuck in our souls."

"Stuck in your soul?" Koromon said.

"You really don't know how you get trapped in us?"

"Not really. I mean, we're right here, aren't we Tai?"

"Well yeah, but, how exactly does this happen? I mean one moment you're with us, but whenever we go into the TV World, you disappear."

"Like we tell you, we're with you for one second, and the next, we're engulfed by this bright light." Salamon said.

"You sure nothing else happens?" Kari said.

"Positive."

"I mean, from that last fight, we remember you calling our names, and we appear right next to you guys, but that's about it." Koromon said.

"Right when we changed Personas…" Tai said, crossing his arms.

"Hey, that's right…" Kari said. "How did you know that we can change our Persona, Tai?"

"Igor made me pay another visit in that Velvet Room thing."

"But, I didn't see any limo pick you up."

"I'm still not sure of what the heck happened there myself, sis…Gah, this is too much for today…Alright everyone, let's just accept these things. The Digimon somehow become part of our souls and Persona whenever we go into the TV, and the Velvet Room is a creepy place that not even I can describe."

"How are we supposed to fight then?" Koromon said.

"Well, whenever we call upon you guys, I guess. Okay, this is enough for today. Let's all get some rest for tomorrow. Tomorrow, we're going to start fighting our way into that castle, and get Yukiko-san out of there, safe and sound, got it?"

"Got it." Everyone said, nodding.

 _ **TO BE CONTINUED**_


End file.
